Hurricane Matthew brought havoc to eastern Florida on Friday morning, with high winds and heavy rain leaving almost 600,000 people without power as the storm continued its destructive march up the coast toward Georgia and North Carolina.
The storm, which has already killed more than 800 people in Haiti, was downgraded overnight on Thursday to a Category 3 hurricane. But forecasters warned it could still bring 120mph winds, some 15 inches of rain and a 9ft storm surge that would threaten flooding along hundreds of miles the south-east US coastline.
After making its way through the Caribbean, striking Cuba and the Bahamas, Matthew spared southern Florida, remaining some 100 miles from the shore as it passed Miami and Fort Lauderdale late on Thursday. The eye of the storm was expected to grind north, pounding the coast of Georgia on Friday night and South Carolina on Saturday.
The northern Florida city of Jacksonville, under its first hurricane warning in 17 years, was potentially in Matthew’s crosshairs. With the storm still moving parallel to the coast, it remained unclear on Friday when and where it might make landfall, but Florida Governor Rick Scott warned that “It could be the worst part of this is still to come.”
Authorities have ordered some two million Floridians to evacuate their homes, while Governor Scott activated 3,500 members of the state’s National Guard. Patients from two waterfront hospitals and a nursing home close to Daytona Beach were moved to safer locations as thousands of people crammed into shelters and inland hotels.
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, meaning federal agencies will coordinate any relief efforts. On Friday, Mr Obama reiterated the advice of local officials for people to follow evacuation orders. “Do what they say. Do not be a holdout, because we can always replace property, but we can't replace lives,” he said.
On Thursday night, one woman in her fifties reportedly died in St Lucie County, Florida, following a heart attack. Emergency personnel were unable to reach her after cancelling operations due to the high winds. There were no deaths reported in the US as a direct result of the storm as of Friday morning.
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando airports were both closed, with some 4,500 flights cancelled. Theme parks including Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld were also shut. Though Nasa’s space shuttle fleet is no longer in service, the private firm SpaceX was concerned about possible damage to its seafront launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral.
