Florida faces the wrath of Matthew: ‘Monster’ hurricane slams in to Sunshine State with 100mph winds – leaving 600,000 without power and anyone refusing to evacuate facing the deadly consequences
Hurricane Matthew started hitting Florida early Friday morning with heavy rain and strong winds
Downgraded from a Category 4 to 3 – but that only means a reduction of winds from 130mph to 120mph
Powerful storm claimed at least 480 lives after it ripped through the Dominican Republic and Haiti Tuesday
A woman in her late 50s died in St Lucie, Florida, after she suffered a heart attack
Orlando’s world-famous theme parks – Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld – all closed
President Barack Obama declared a federal state of emergency in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina
Could bring a storm surge of up to 11 feet in some areas and drop up to 15 inches of rain on Florida
Gov Rick Scott of Florida says about 600,000 have been left without power; millions more could suffer
Matthew could also absorb or combine with Hurricane Nicole, which has formed off coast of Bermuda
Two million people in the US were urged to evacuate their homes in preparation for a ‘direct hit’
Despite the dire warnings, thousands of brave – or stupid – people opted to stay behind and party
By REGINA F. GRAHAM and SARAH DEAN
DailyMail.com
7 October 2016
Florida residents were urged this morning to stay away from windows and doors as Hurricane Matthew’s howling wind and driving rain pummeled the state, at the start of what is expected to be a ruinous battering of the Southeast coast.
The strongest winds of 120 mph were just offshore, but Matthew’s wrath still menaced more than 500 miles of coastline and 26 million Americans.
As of 9am, Matthew’s eyewall was brushing the coast of North-Central Florida, just off the coast of Daytona Beach, after the storm worked its way past Melbourne and Cape Canaveral, site of a US Air Force Station and the home of NASA’s $11 billion Kennedy Space Center.
The eye of the storm was still several miles offshore and moving north north-west at 13mph.
There are signs that a direct hit with land will be avoided if the hurricane continues to move in a northerly direction.
‘Matthew is grazing the coast of Florida without quite making landfall as the forecast models have been predicting and, if this remains the case, then the Florida coast will be spared the most powerful winds which are wrapped around the storm’s inner core,’ Dr Steven Godby, an expert on natural hazards, said.
Government officials have declared a state of emergency in several states in an effort to plan ahead of the deadly Category Three storm.
The Rest…HERE
