Hurricane Matthew to throttle Carolinas and Georgia

Flooding is a big concern from coastal Georgia through the eastern Carolinas.

The category 1 hurricane, which made landfall southeast of McClellanville Saturday morning, is now off the North Carolina coast late Saturday night. The Category 2 hurricane will near North Carolina’s southern coast by Saturday night, the center says.

The storm left more than 300 people dead in the Caribbean and at least one person has died in Florida.

Note that after sliding up past Florida, Georgia, and SC, the storm is expected to loop back around next week. Matthew was centered about 35 miles north-northeast of Cape Canaveral and moving north-northwest around 13 mph.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING is now in effect for the counties highlighted in orange.

Coastal counties in SC experienced heavy rain and gusty winds.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley warned residents who have yet to evacuate to quickly get to a shelter.

With so many power outages, the state’s utilities do not have to import as much natural gas as usual to generate electricity. Officials in some areas are going door-to-door, urging people to leave. Most of the customers in Flagler and Volusia County – the home to Daytona Beach – were without power.

500: Florida National Guardsman activated.

530: Miles mandatory evacuations extend from Palm Beach County, Florida, to the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. “We are looking at major storm surges, we are looking at major winds“, Haley said at a news conference on Friday.

Officials expect to have more specific assessments of damage Saturday.

It’ll be the first hurricane to hit Florida’s east coast since 1950’s Hurricane King – which hit Miami, killing seven and destroying 21,000 homes, NBC News reports.

Tree falls through Jacksonville woman’s roof during Hurricane Matthew on October 7, 2016.

In Florida, a 58-year-old woman in St. Lucie County died this morning after she suffered cardiac arrest and medical personnel were unable to reach her.

Millions of people have already evacuated coastal areas of the three states in the south-eastern United States ahead of the arrival of the storm.

The storm could be the most powerful to strike northeast Florida in 118 years.

Storm surge is defined as “an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tide”, according to the National Weather Service.

Jacksonville was not battered as heavily as initially feared.

Edisto Beach to South Santee River, South Carolina, is expected to get inundated with a storm surge of four to six feet of water.

Stay with Storm Team 3 as we continue to track Matthew, and be sure to download the WSAV weather app.