Hurricane Matthew is expected to Hit South Florida early Friday Morning and Move up the East Coast

PLEASE TAKE THE WARNINGS TO THIS MASSIVE HURRICANE SERIOUSLY …

Hurricane Matthew hits the Bahamas and headed toward Florida. Matthew has already been responsible for 26 deaths (updated now to 39) as it heads toward the East coast of the United States. Gov. Scott warned Florida could be facing its ‘biggest evacuation ever’ after declaring a state emergency. Matthew is supposed to be a CAT4 hurricane when it hits the U.S. Please take the evacuations seriously.

More than two million people in the US have been urged to evacuate their homes amid warnings Hurricane Matthew is strengthening and could cause ‘loss of life’ as it bears down on the East Coast.

Thousands of families have been caught in gridlock in Florida, the Carolinas and Georgia after fleeing their homes ahead of the storm – which is expected to strike Miami at around 2am on Friday and crawl northwards.

The powerful category-three hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, has already killed at least 22 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.

It is expected to intensify to a ‘catastrophic’ category-four hurricane when it batters southern Florida and moves further up the Atlantic coast into Georgia and South Carolina, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The National Weather Service has advised that ‘loss of life’ and ‘immense human suffering’ is possible for those who don’t take precautions.

The Weather Channel: Hurricane Matthew’s U.S. Impacts: Life-Threatening Storm Surge, Damaging Winds, Flooding Rainfall.

Hurricane Matthew will hammer parts of eastern Florida starting Thursday, and then spread up the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas Friday into the weekend.

As illustrated by the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) projected path map, and also explained below, the severity of any direct impacts will depend on how close the center of Matthew moves near the coast.

An important point to make is that landfall does NOT need to take place for the worst impacts to come ashore. The strongest winds and most drilling surge will come to the coast in the eyewall, which surrounds the eye. Landfall occurs when the calmest portion of the eye, or the center, comes ashore. Hurricane conditions could come ashore even if the center stays 20 to 30 miles offshore.

Millions flee as Southeast U.S. braces for deadly Hurricane Matthew.

Roadways in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were jammed and gas stations and food stores ran out of supplies as the storm approached, bringing storm surges, heavy rain and sustained winds that accelerated overnight to about 125 miles (205 km) per hour.

Matthew, which killed at least 39 people and displaced thousands, mostly in southern Haiti, was predicted to strengthen from a Category 3 to 4 storm en route to Florida’s Atlantic coast. Landfall was expected there on Thursday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The center extended its hurricane warning area farther north into Georgia and more than 12 million U.S. residents were under a hurricane watches and warnings, according to the Weather Channel.

“Everyone in our state must prepare now for a direct hit,” Florida Governor Scott said at a news conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday. “If Matthew directly impacts Florida, the destruction could be catastrophic and you need to be prepared.”