Americans across the U.S. Southeast fled the coastline, stocked up on groceries and queued for gasoline on Wednesday (October 5) as President Barack Obama and state governors urged millions to evacuate or brace for a potentially devastating Hurricane Matthew.
Matthew pummeled the Bahamas and took aim at the United States as the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade appeared likely to hit Florida with powerful winds, storm surges and heavy rain late on Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Matthew, a major Category Three storm, packed maximum sustained winds about 120 mph (195 kph) as of 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the hurricane center said, adding that it was too soon to predict where Matthew was likely to do the most damage along the U.S. coastline.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has ordered an evacuation of more than a million people in coastal areas, about a quarter of whom were expected to comply.
“Evacuations are continuing on for Charleston in Buford County and those seem to be going as normal. We have 32 shelters that are now open, four special needs facilities are now open,” Haley said at a news conference.
The hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, whipped Cuba and Haiti with 140 mile-per-hour (230 kph) winds and torrential rains on Tuesday, killing at least 21 people, pummeling towns and destroying livestock, crops and homes.
Authorities are just beginning efforts to assess the full scale of the damage.
“Once we have our assessments underway, we will work with the government of Haiti and our partners on the ground. And now this will take days, it won’t be something that will be done in hours, this will take days and our team will be up and standing around the clock and in coordination with our folks on the ground for at least a week or two ahead of us,” said Assistant Administrator for the Bureau For Democracy, Conflict, And Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) David Harden.
Hurricane and tropical storm warnings have been extended along a large stretch of Florida’s east coast ahead of Matthew’s forecast arrival there on Thursday.
The governors of North Carolina and Georgia have also declared states of emergencies, enabling them to mobilize the National Guard.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016