Hurricane Matthew lashed the Florida coastline Friday morning leaving more than 600,000 people without power, as the Category 3 storm threatened to unleash winds of 120 mph and punishing storm surge.
The most powerful storm in more than a decade to threaten the U.S. has already forced some two million people across the Southeast to evacuate and left a path of destruction in its wake, killing more than 280 across the Caribbean. Officials in St. Lucie County confirmed one storm-related death in Florida: a 58-year-old woman who suffered cardiac arrest overnight.
Gov. Rick Scott said Friday the hurricane "still has time to do a direct hit" and he remarked that "the worst part of this is yet to come."
Forecasters said it could dump up to 15 inches of rain in some spots and trigger a storm surge of 9 feet or more. A 107 mph gust was recorded in Cape Canaveral.
At 11 a.m., Matthew was centered around 35 miles northeast of Daytona Beach and about 95 miles southeast of Jacksonville. Its wind speed was holding steady, and it was moving northwest at 12 mph. The storm initially threatened Florida as a Category 4 storm, but the National Hurricane Center said Friday it had weakened to a Category 3.
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