A woman carrying a child walks in the rain triggered by Hurricane Matthew in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Hurricane Matthew roared into the southwestern coast of Haiti on Tuesday, threatening a largely rural corner of the impoverished country with devastating storm conditions as it headed north toward Cuba and the eastern coast of Florida. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Wind blows coconut trees during the passage of Hurricane Matthew in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Hurricane Matthew roared into the southwestern coast of Haiti on Tuesday, threatening a largely rural corner of the impoverished country with devastating storm conditions as it headed north toward Cuba and the eastern coast of Florida. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Women cover their heads with pans as they walk in a light rain brought by Hurricane Matthew in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Hurricane Matthew roared into the southwestern coast of Haiti on Tuesday, threatening a largely rural corner of the impoverished country with devastating storm conditions as it headed north toward Cuba and the eastern coast of Florida. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A dog crosses a street under heavy rain in downtown Kingston, Jamaica, Sunday Oct. 2 , 2016. An extremely dangerous Hurricane Matthew is moving slowly over the Caribbean. It's following a track that authorities are warning could trigger devastation in parts of Haiti. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

A car tries to cross a flooded street in downtown Kingston Jamaica, Sunday Oct. 2 , 2016. An extremely dangerous Hurricane Matthew is moving slowly over the Caribbean. It's following a track that authorities are warning could trigger devastation in parts of Haiti. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

People stand on the coast watching the surf produced by Hurricane Matthew, on the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. A hurricane warning is in effect for Jamaica, Haiti, and the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma and Las Tunas - as well as the southeastern Bahamas. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A police officer helps residents climb down from a pickup after been evacuated prior the arrival of Hurricane Matthew, in Tabarre, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. The center of Hurricane Matthew is expected to pass near or over southwestern Haiti on Tuesday, but the area is already experiencing rain from the outer bands of the storm. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A woman protects herself from the rain with a piece of plastic prior the arrival of Hurricane Matthew, in Tabarre, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. The center of Hurricane Matthew is expected to pass near or over southwestern Haiti on Tuesday, but the area is already experiencing rain from the outer bands of the storm. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A security guard sits next to a several stores that had their windows covered with plywood in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Matthew in Kingston, Jamaica, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. Major Hurricane Matthew is slowly churning northward across the Caribbean and meteorologists say the powerful storm is expected to approach Jamaica and southwest Haiti by Monday night. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Civil protection workers asks residents to evacuate their homes located near the the Grise river, in Tabarre, Haiti, Monday Oct. 3, 2016. The center of Hurricane Matthew is expected to pass near or over southwestern Haiti on Tuesday, but the area is already experiencing rain from the outer bands of the storm. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A girl watches as authorities arrive to evacuate people from her house in Tabarre, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. The center of Hurricane Matthew is expected to pass near or over southwestern Haiti on Tuesday, but the area is already experiencing rain from the outer bands of the storm. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Cars drive along a street under heavy rain in downtown Kingston Jamaica, Sunday Oct. 2 , 2016. An extremely dangerous Hurricane Matthew is moving slowly over the Caribbean. It's following a track that authorities are warning could trigger devastation in parts of Haiti.(AP Photo/Collin Reid)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — People boarded up beach homes, schools closed and officials ordered evacuations along the East Coast on Wednesday as Hurricane Matthew tore through the Bahamas and took aim at Florida, where the governor urged coastal residents to “leave now” if they were able.

Matthew was a dangerous and life-threatening Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 mph, and it was expected to be very near Florida’s Atlantic coast by Thursday evening. At least 11 deaths in the Caribbean have been blamed on the storm.

In South Carolina, traffic was bumper-to-bumper as people fled on Interstate 26, the main artery out of Charleston. Gasoline was hard to come by, with at least half a dozen stations along the coast out of fuel and long lines at others.

“We’re staying because we have to board the house up,” Buff Schwab said as she wheeled in a cooler filled with food she purchased the night before at a local supermarket.

Storm shutters were closed on a number of palatial homes overlooking Charleston’s Civil War-era Battery along the water. Carriage tours made their way down streets that were largely empty of traffic.

“I’m worried. I’ve gotten a lot of calls to go home,” Schwab said of her relatives in North Carolina. “It is what it is and we’re going to sit it out and put a lot of food in the crock pot.”

In Florida, theme parks watched the storm closely and told customers to anticipate altered hours. Voluntary and mandatory evacuations were to take place Wednesday in the central part of the state.

“If you’re able to go early, leave now,” Gov. Rick Scott said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew — at one point a fierce Category 5 — will remain a powerful storm at least through Thursday night as it nears Florida. The Hurricane Center said fluctuation in intensity was expected and some strengthening is forecast in coming days as the storm crawls up the coast.

Forecasters said there was a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation along Florida’s east coast, much of which was under a hurricane watch or warning.

“When a hurricane is forecast to take a track roughly parallel to a coastline, as Matthew is forecast to do from Florida through South Carolina, it becomes very difficult to specify impacts at any one location,” said senior hurricane specialist Lixion Avila.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the federal government’s preparation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Washington.

Now is the time to “hope for the best but we want to prepare for the worst,” Obama said.

FEMA has deployed personnel to emergency operation centres in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. It’s also positioning commodities and other supplies at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and in Albany, Georgia.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced plans starting Wednesday afternoon to evacuate a quarter million people — not including tourists — from the coast.

Haley said 315 buses were dispatched to two major coastal counties to help with evacuations. The National Guard and other law enforcement agents are mobilized, ready to ensure an orderly evacuation.

“We ask everybody to please be safe,” Haley said, warning those thinking of staying put that they could be risking the life of a law enforcement officer if they had to be rescued later.

In Florida, a message on Walt Disney World’s website Wednesday said all of its theme parks and resorts are “currently operating under normal conditions” as officials continue to monitor the storm. They advised those who plan on visiting Disney to monitor news outlets for the latest weather information.

Officials at SeaWorld in Orlando announced on its website that officials “anticipate altered hours due to Hurricane Matthew.”

In Melbourne Beach, Florida, Carlos and April Medina wanted to get a jump start on the evacuation order issued for barrier islands. They moved their paddle board and kayak inside the garage. They took down pictures on the walls and wrapped the frames in blankets on their bed before hopping in a truck filled with legal documents, jewelry and a decorative carved shell that had once belonged to April Medina’s great-grandfather. They headed west to Orlando.

Government officials are worried about complacency, especially in South Florida, which hasn’t seen a major hurricane — a Category 3 or higher — in 11 years.

Hurricane Hermine hit the eastern Panhandle on Sept. 2 as a Category 1 storm, causing one death, storm surge damage to beachfront homes and downed trees and powerlines. That was the first hurricane to strike Florida since Wilma — a Category 3 — slammed into the coast in 2005. The 11-year lull between Hermine and Wilma was the longest on record for Florida.

Governors in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina declared states of emergency.

In rural Turbeville, South Carolina, farmer Jeremy Cannon said he waited too long last year and watched his soybeans and cotton crops slowly drown as 20 inches of rain fell on his fields. This year he is taking no chances with Hurricane Matthew and will harvest about a week early.

This is the third year in a row weather is threatening the livelihood of this 35-year-old fourth generation farmer. Drought hurt him badly in 2014, and the massive flood last year set him back $800,000, which he didn’t come close to covering through insurance and some aid from the state.

“The Lord says pray without ceasing. And that’s what I’ve been doing — in the fields, near the barn — just praying all the time. I don’t want to find out what I’ll have to do if I get wiped out for another year,” Cannon said.

Kay reported from Miami Beach. Associated Press reporters Jeffrey Collins, Jack Jones and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Bruce Smith in Charleston, South Carolina; Mike Schneider in Melbourne Beach, Florida; and Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report. </s> Haiti also began evacuating residents by boat from outlying islands in preparation for Hurricane Matthew, which threatens to wreak widespread damage in the region with flash floods and winds of about 150 miles per hour.

Matthew is expected to make landfall as a major storm on Jamaica's southern coast, home to the capital, Kingston, and its only oil refinery. Stormy weather could begin on Sunday.

Simultaneously, the storm is forecast to lash southern Haiti, possibly dumping up to 40 inches of rain there and up to 25 inches in Jamaica, which could trigger life-threatening landslides and floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Albert Moulion, Haiti's interior ministry spokesman, said authorities had started voluntary evacuations of residents of small, exposed sandy islands in the south as a precaution.

"We have already started evacuations," he said. "The national center of emergency operations has been activated."

By early Tuesday, Matthew is due in eastern Cuba, with a path that could take it over the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo province, where the U.S. operates a naval base and a military prison.

The U.S. Navy said some 700 spouses and children were to be airlifted to Florida to wait out the storm.

"The remaining military and civilian personnel will shelter in place and be able to support recovery efforts once safe to do so following the storm's passage," the Navy said in a statement.

Later in the week, the storm could affect the Bahamas and the east coast of the United States, although forecasts so far out are often inaccurate. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said residents of the state should prepare for the storm.

Matthew was about 340 miles southeast of Port-Au-Prince on Sunday morning and the U.S. National Hurricane Center ranked it at Category 4 of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale ofhurricane intensity. Earlier it had been ranked at the top Category 5.

The ferocity of the storm has led to concerns of economic devastation in the poor countries in its path.

"The hurricane will cause an interruption, obviously, in our economic activities here," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, saying that tourism and agriculture could be most affected.

"We have allocated all the resources we can given our fiscal restraints and I think that the country is prepared for the hurricane," Holness said.

Cash-strapped Jamaica has been suffering a long economic slowdown and is under an International Monetary Fund program to tackle high debt. The hurricane could affect tourist destinations such as Montego Bay in Jamaica's north

In Kingston, residents stocked up on canned foods, water and flashlights in preparation for the storm, while banks and offices boarded up their windows. Fishermen were told not to go to sea.

"We’ve had these kind of occurrences in the past and it is generally bad, because Jamaica does not have proper infrastructure," said the trade unionist for Jamaica's meteorological office. "In simple rainfall, we have flooding." </s> In this NOAA handout image, taken by the GOES satellite on Oct. 1, 2016 shows Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean Sea just south of Cuba and Jamaica.

Handout / Getty Images </s> As Category 4 Hurricane Matthew's eye passes over Les Cayes, Haiti. this morning, the storm remains a churning behemoth. Winds topping 140 miles per hour have been reported in Haiti's westernmost tip, while up to three feet of rain pours onto mountain villages in the nearby hillsides. Across the border in the Dominican Republic, the dirty side of the cane has spawned tornadoes and vicious windstorms.

As the Caribbean hunkers down for the storm to pass, the threat to the Sunshine State is still strong this morning. In its latest update, NOAA's Hurricane Center says parts of Florida's east coast and the Keys are likely to come under official watches soon.

"Tropical storm and/or hurricane watches are likely for portions of the Florida peninsula and Florida Keys later this morning," NOAA reports as of 5 a.m.

Storm model tracks are still mostly in agreement with yesterday's westward shift for the storm. NOAA's latest forecast calls for the storm to veer toward Florida by Thursday:

Of course, three days out forecasts are still far from certain in terms of where the storm will hit and how strong it will be by then. Unlike many hurricanes that hit Cuba and Hispaniola, Matthew looks likely to mostly avoid the mountain ranges on those islands. That means it should stay strong as it barrels over the flat Bahamas.

"Matthew poses an unusually widespread threat to the U.S. East Coast, with impacts possible from Florida to Maine," write Bob Henson and Jeff Masters at Weather Underground.

Today, though, all eyes are on Haiti, where it's been almost a decade since a storm this strong crossed the island nation. Video shot early this morning as the eye approached showed a violent tempest: </s> Hurricane Matthew, a potentially devastating Category 4 storm, swirled across the Caribbean toward Haiti and Jamaica, where residents frantically stocked up on emergency supplies and authorities urged people to evacuate threatened areas.

Matthew is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history and briefly reached the top classification, Category 5, before weakening slightly to a high-end Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph (240 kph). It is the strongest hurricane here since Felix in 2007.

While previous forecasts had Matthew passing near or over the eastern tip of Jamaica, the latest projection has it shifting eastward and possibly striking the southwestern tip of Haiti as a Category 3 hurricane on Monday. A hurricane warning has been issued for the impoverished country which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

Deforestation has greatly increased the potential for devastating floods and landslides on Haiti, and combined with the ramshackle structure of many homes and building, this means that Matthew could deal a vicious blow to the country.

After passing Jamaica and Haiti, Matthew is expected to reach Cuba on Tuesday, potentially making a direct hit on the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.

A mandatory evacuation of non-essential personnel, including about 700 family members of military personnel, was underway at the base and everyone remaining behind was being told to take shelter, said Julie Ann Ripley, a spokeswoman. There are about 5,500 people living on the base, including 61 men held at the detention center.

The forecast track would also carry Matthew into the Bahamas, with an outside chance of a brush with Florida, though that would be several days away.

"It's too early to rule out what impacts, if any, would occur in the United States and Florida," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman at the Hurricane Center.

In Haiti, civil protection officials broadcast warnings of a coming storm surge and big waves, saying the country would be "highly threatened" from the approaching system, which is expected to start affecting Haiti and Jamaica Sunday night. They urged families to prepare emergency food and water kits.

Emergency management authorities banned boating, particularly along the impoverished country's southern coastline.

In Jamaica, where there is also a hurricane warning, flooding temporarily closed the road linking the capital to its airport. Carl Ferguson, head of the marine police, said people were starting to heed calls to relocate from small islands and areas near rural waterways.

Residents of the capital, Kingston, crowded supermarkets to buy bottled water, canned food and batteries. In the coastal town of Port Royal, officials were urging residents to seek refuge in government shelters once they open up on Sunday.

Many Jamaicans also began stocking up for the emergency.

At the Azan Super Centre, a supermarket in Kingston, shoppers were scooping up flashlights and gas lamps and other key supplies along with food. The kerosene was already sold out.

"It has been chaos from the morning," owner Melain Azan said.

Shopper Nardia Powell said she was stocking up because she learned a hard lesson when she was unprepared for Hurricane Ivan in 2004, as were many others. "So, I just want to be on the safe side, right?" she said.

Jamaicans are accustomed to intense storms, but Hurricane Matthew looked particularly threatening. At its peak, it was more powerful than Hurricane Gilbert, which made landfall on the island in September 1988 and was the most destructive storm in the country's modern history.

As of 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), the storm was centered about 340 miles (550 kilometers) south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was traveling north-northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).

Earlier, Matthew skimmed past the northern tip of South America where there were reports of at least two deaths.

But authorities in the area overall breathed a sigh of relief as damage appeared minimal despite flooding in towns along the La Guajira peninsula of Colombia. Some officials were even grateful for the rain after a multi-year drought in the poverty-stricken area.

"Families that evacuated are returning to their homes," said La Guajira Gov. Jorge Velez. "The dikes and wells filled up, the earth is moist, and this benefits agriculture in an area where it hasn't rained for five years, benefiting the community." </s> Matthew, with winds at about 150 miles per hour (240 kph), is expected to make landfall as a major storm on Jamaica's southern coast, home to the capital, Kingston, and its only oil refinery. Stormy weather could begin on Sunday.

Simultaneously. the storm is forecast to lash southern Haiti, dumping up to 40 inches (101 cm) of rain there and up to 25 inches (64 cm) in Jamaica, possibly triggering life-threatening landslides and floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Albert Moulion, Haiti's interior ministry spokesman, said authorities had started voluntary evacuations of residents of small, exposed sandy islands in the south as a precaution.

"We have already started evacuations," he said. "The national center of emergency operations has been activated."

By early Tuesday, Matthew is due in eastern Cuba, with a path that could take it over the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba and the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo.

The U.S. ordered the mandatory evacuation of approximately 700 spouses and children from the base on Saturday, saying it was airlifting them to a station in Pensacola, Florida. Cuban President Raul Castro visited Santiago de Cuba on Saturday to oversee storm preparations, Cuban TV footage showed.

The ferocity of the storm, the strongest in the Carribbean since Hurricane Felix in 2007, has led to concerns of economic devastation in the poor countries in its path.

"The hurricane will cause an interruption, obviously, in our economic activities here," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, saying that tourism and agriculture could be most affected.

"We have allocated all the resources we can given our fiscal restraints and I think that the country is prepared for the hurricane," Holness said.

Cash-strapped Jamaica has been suffering a long economic slowdown and is under an International Monetary Fund program to tackle high debt.

In Kingston, residents stocked up on canned foods, water and flashlights in preparation for the storm, while banks and offices boarded up their windows. Fishermen were told not to go to sea.

In MegaMart, a supermarket, Ennis St. Patrice and his wife, Monique, bought big bottles of water.

"We’ve had these kind of occurrences in the past and it is generally bad, because Jamaica does not have proper infrastructure,” said St Patrice, a trade unionist for Jamaica's meteorological office. “In simple rainfall, we have flooding.” </s> Hurricane Matthew has strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale while moving west- southwestward over the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.

Matthew was located about 495 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour (185 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said.

The center of Matthew will pass north of the Guajira Peninsula later Friday and remain over the central Caribbean Sea through early Sunday, the NHC said. </s> Hurricane Matthew gained new fury as it hammered the central Bahamas early Thursday, and forecasters said the life-threatening storm is expected to strengthen as it approaches Florida’s heavily populated Atlantic coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew, though still a dangerous Category 3 hurricane as the day dawned, was expected to regain status as an even more powerful Category 4 storm in coming hours. Top sustained winds ratcheted up from 115 mph to 125 mph overnight.

As the threat from the major hurricane rose along the Southeast seacoast, the centre extended a hurricane warning area on a large swath of Florida’s east coast farther up to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. And it said a newly expanded hurricane watch area would now reach from the Altamaha Sound to the South Santee River in South Carolina.

In photos: Haiti and Cuba pummelled by Hurricane Matthew

As Matthew put the U.S. in its sights, about 2 million people were encouraged to head inland ahead of the most powerful storm to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade. Matthew killed at least 16 people in the Caribbean as it cut through Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas.

The storm is forecast to near the Florida coast starting Thursday night, potentially as a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds. Any slight deviation could mean landfall or it heading farther out to sea. Either way, forecasters say it will come close enough to wreak havoc along the lower part of the East Coast, dumping up to 15 inches in rain in some spots. Storm surge of 5 feet to 8 feet was expected along the coast from central Florida into Georgia.

None of this mattered to John Long, who lives in the Florida town of Cape Canaveral.

“The hype is going to be worse than the actual storm. I feel I can do quite well,” said Long, who owns a bike shop and plans to ride out the storm with his cat in his 32-foot recreational vehicle a half-mile from the ocean. He has lived in the Space Coast area for three decades. “There’s always tremendous buildup and then it’s no stronger than an afternoon thunderstorm. I’m not anticipating that much damage,” he said Wednesday.

“This is a dangerous storm,” Scott said. “The storm has already killed people. We should expect the same impact in Florida.”

Similar warnings were issued in Georgia and the Carolinas, where the storm is expected to arrive by the weekend. The last Category 3 storm or higher to hit the United States was Wilma in October 2005. It made landfall with 120 mph winds in southwest Florida, killing five people as it slashed across the state.

In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley reversed the lanes of Interstate 26 for the first time on Wednesday so that all lanes of traffic were headed west and out of Charleston. Plans to reverse the lanes were put in place after hourslong traffic jams during Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Haley planned to call for more evacuations Thursday, which would bring the total to about 500,000 people in the state. Florida urged or ordered about 1.5 million to leave the coast, said Jackie Schutz, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott. About 50,000 people were told to go in Georgia.

On Tybee Island, home to Georgia’s largest public beach, Loren Kook was loading up his pickup truck with suitcases and a computer late Wednesday afternoon. He and his wife were trying to decide whether to board up their windows overlooking the marsh grasses of Horsepen Creek before hitting the road to metro Atlanta.

“It seems like a lot of the longtime residents are staying,” said Kook, who moved to the coast four years ago. “I’ve never sat through a Category Whatever. I’ll watch it on TV.”

Early Thursday, Matthew’s centre was about 255 miles southeast of West Palm Beach, Florida, and slogging ever closer at a clip of 12 mph.

Yet despite evacuation orders and dire warnings, Robert and Georgette Tyler said they were staying put in their 500-square foot rental home in Cape Canaveral, undeterred that Matthew might soon be pounding at their door.

Taking a break from putting plywood on windows, Robert Tyler said he feared getting stuck in traffic and that it was too much trouble to pack up his motorcycles and firearms. He has two generators, 50 gallons of fuel and enough food and water for a week. Plus, he is a handyman and his phone will be ringing off the hook once the storm passes.

“It’s part of Florida life I guess, especially on the coast,” he said. </s> CHARLESTON, S.C. | A fast-weakening Hurricane Matthew continued its march along the Atlantic coast Saturday, lashing two of the South’s most historic cities and some of its most popular resort islands, flattening trees, swamping streets and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands.

The storm was blamed for at least four deaths in the U.S., all in Florida. In its long wake, it also left at least 470 dead in Haiti in one hard-hit district alone, according to officials, with other stricken areas still unreachable four days after the disaster struck.

Matthew raked Georgia and South Carolina with torrential rain and stiff winds, and — for the first time in its run up the U.S. coastline — its storm center blew ashore, making landfall north of Charleston, near the town of McClellanville, where it caused serious flooding.

A car drives past a downed tree as Hurricane Matthew moves through Daytona Beach, Fla. Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. Matthew was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane overnight, and its storm center hung just offshore as it moved up the Florida coastline, sparing communities its full 120 mph winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Brian Johns is hit by a wave as he tries to video the effects of Hurricane Matthew, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) A car rests in a ditch on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 in Longwood, Fla. Hurricane Matthew scraped Florida's Atlantic coast early Friday, toppling trees onto homes and knocking out power to more than a half-million people but sparing some of the most heavily populated stretches of shoreline the catastrophic blow many had feared. (Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel via AP) Ryan Stasa surverys the damage at Archie's Seabreeze in Fort Pierce, Fla., Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, after Hurricane Matthew passed through. (Zachary Sampson/Tampa Bay Times via AP) An official vehicle passes along the shoulder of Highway A1A after it was partial washed away by Hurricane Matthew, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, in Flagler Beach, Fla. Hurricane Matthew spared Florida’s most heavily populated stretch from a catastrophic blow Friday but threatened some of the South’s most historic and picturesque cities with ruinous flooding and wind damage as it pushed its way up the coastline. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Keith Paseur, right, and Jamie Day walk through a flooded street from Hurricane Matthew as they check on a neighbor riding out the storm in their downtown store in Brunswick, Ga., Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman) An official vehicle navigates debris as it passes along Highway A1A after it was partial washed away by Hurricane Matthew, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, in Flagler Beach, Fla. Hurricane Matthew spared Florida’s most heavily populated stretch from a catastrophic blow Friday but threatened some of the South’s most historic and picturesque cities with ruinous flooding and wind damage as it pushed its way up the coastline. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Debbie Tait checks on sand bags in the entrance to her hardware store as the street floods with water from Hurricane Matthew in downtown Brunswick, Ga., Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. She and her husband plan on riding the storm out in their store which has been in his family for 90 years. "We're not going anywhere. It's our livelihood," said Tait. (AP Photo/David Goldman) A car attempts to cross the flooded intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Victory Drive Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, in Savannah, Ga., as Hurricane Matthew hits the coast of Georgia. Governor Nathan Deal called for a mandatory evacuation of all peoples east of Interstate 95 in Georgia but many have refused to leave. (Josh Galemore/Savannah Morning News via AP) Rain from Hurricane Matthew falls on the flooded intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Victory Drive Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, in Savannah, Ga. (Josh Galemore/Savannah Morning News via AP) A gas pump sits out of service after Hurricane Matthew knocked out power while passing through St. Simons Island, Ga., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. Matthew plowed north along the Atlantic coast, flooding towns and gouging out roads in its path. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Andy Jones clears away limbs from a tree blocking a road after it fell over from Hurricane Matthew on St. Simons Island, Ga., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. Matthew plowed north along the Atlantic coast, flooding towns and gouging out roads in its path. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Flood waters rise around cars parked on a street near the popular City Market in Charleston, S.C., during Hurricane Matthew on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. The storm moved along the South Carolina coast with the worst winds hitting Charleston on Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith) A truck approaches a fallen tree caused by Hurricane Matthew on I-95 North on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in Richmond Hill, Ga. Matthew is continuing its march along the Atlantic coast, lashing two of the South's most historic cities and some of its most popular resort islands with heavy rain and stiff winds. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) An unidentified woman is rescued from her vehicle which is floating in waist-deep water on flooded President Street after Hurricane Matthew caused flooding along the east coast of Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) A truck passes a fallen tree caused by Hurricane Matthew on I-95 North on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in Richmond Hill, Ga. Matthew is continuing its march along the Atlantic coast, lashing two of the South's most historic cities and some of its most popular resort islands with heavy rain and stiff winds. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) People walk down Station 30 with their dog as Hurricane Matthew hits Sullivan's Island, S.C., Saturday, October 8, 2016. Matthew is continuing its march along the Atlantic coast, lashing two of the South's most historic cities and some of its most popular resort islands with heavy rain and stiff winds. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) A woman who identified herself as Valerie walks along flooded President Street after leaving her homeless camp after Hurricane Matthew caused flooding, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in Savannah, Ga. Matthew plowed north along the Atlantic coast, flooding towns and gouging out roads in its path. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) A tree and power lines blown over by Hurricane Matthew lay across a road on St. Simons Island, Ga., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. Matthew plowed north along the Atlantic coast, flooding towns and gouging out roads in its path.(AP Photo/David Goldman) Mike Pendergrast moves a wagon down 41st Ave. full of sand to fill with sand bags around his home on the Isle of Palms as Hurricane Matthew approaches the Isle of Palms, S.C., Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Robert Nicotra braves the wind and rain along the beach on the Isle of Palms, S.C., as Hurricane Matthew approaches, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Bull River Yacht Club Dock Master Robert Logan leaves the dock after finishing up storm preparations as Hurricane Matthew makes its way up the East Coast, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, in Savannah, Ga. Authorities warned that the danger was far from over, with hundreds of miles of coastline in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina still under threat of torrential rain and dangerous storm surge as the most powerful hurricane to menace the Atlantic Seaboard in over a decade pushed north. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

Up until then, the center, or eye, mercifully stayed just far enough out at sea that coastal communities didn’t feel the full force of Matthew’s winds. As the storm passed one city after another, the reaction was relief that things were nowhere near as bad as many feared.

“We are all blessed that Matthew stayed off our coast,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. “We are blessed that we didn’t have a direct hit.”

As of 11 a.m., Matthew — by some measures the most powerful hurricane to menace the U.S. in more than a decade — was just barely a hurricane, with winds of 75 mph. That was down from 145 mph when the storm roared into Haiti.

Among the cities bracing for its effects later in the day were Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. From there, the storm was expected to veer out to sea and loop back around through the Bahamas and toward Florida again, though as a barely noticeable wave.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory warned people not to let their guard down just because Matthew was losing steam.

As the hurricane began making its exit, it looked as if forecasters had gotten it right. Matthew stayed near the middle of the National Hurricane Center map’s “cone of uncertainty” as it scraped the coast. Forecasters defended the large-scale evacuations.

“What would you rather have as the alternative?” said Colorado State University meteorology professor Phil Klotzbach.

In Savannah, Georgia, a historic town of moss-draped squares and antebellum mansions, floodwaters several feet deep submerged a long stretch of President Street, which links downtown to the highway to Georgia’s Tybee Island. A homeless woman was seen staggering through waters up to her neck.

The shivering woman made it to the water’s edge. A bystander handed her a sheet, which she wrapped around her neck.

Matthew also brought some of the highest tides on record along the South Carolina coast. Streets in Charleston — a city of handsome pre-Civil War homes, church steeples and romantic carriage rides — were flooded.

Leigh Webber watched the torrential rains from the porch of her home in the city’s historic district.

“It’s not as bad as maybe I was expecting,” she said.

“I feel badly for a lot of the businesses downtown that have been closed since Wednesday,” she added. “I noticed a lot of hotels were completely closed. I know some weddings were canceled and it was a huge financial loss for a lot of people.”

South Carolina’s golf-and-tennis resort Hilton Head Island also took a blow as the eye of the storm passed 20 miles to the east. At least one gust of 87 mph was recorded at Hilton Head.

The two roads onto the island of 40,000 people were blocked by fallen pine trees, and many roads were under water. Signs were blown over, and power was out across the island.

Chandler Brunson and was among those trying to go back to her home after evacuating, but found her path blocked.

“I think we’re going to have a pine tree splitting our house,” she said. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Residents of Brunswick, Georgia, woke to roads covered by water or fallen trees and power lines. All access points to nearby St. Simons Island from the mainland were blocked. Tybee Island also took a beating, with gusts clocked at 93 mph.

Nearly a half-million electric customers in South Carolina were left without power, and 250,000 were in the dark in coastal Georgia.

Matthew set off alarms as it closed in on the U.S., triggering evacuation orders covering at least 2 million people. But in the end, the hurricane skirted Florida’s heavily populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area and sideswiped cities farther north, including Daytona Beach, Vero Beach, Cape Canaveral and Jacksonville, without its center ever actually coming ashore in Florida.

The damage consisted largely of fallen trees and power lines, eroded beaches and flooded roads. In northeastern Florida, the storm gouged out several large sections of the coastal A1A highway north of Daytona Beach.

Well south of the storm, things quickly began returning to normal Saturday, with all three of Orlando’s main theme parks — Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld — reopening in the morning. And the power began coming back on for the 1 million people in Florida who lost it.

The deaths in Florida included an elderly St. Lucie County couple who died from carbon monoxide fumes while running a generator in their garage and two women who were killed when trees fell on a home and a camper.

Fire Chief Don Petito said waves and storm surge flattened sand dunes and allowed water to inundate a community in Florida’s Flagler County. At one point, he said, rescuers getting people out of homes saw a shark in the water. No one was hurt.

The storm raked yet another historic Southern city on its way up the coast: St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded by the Spanish in the 1500s and includes a 17th-century stone fortress and many historic homes turned into bed-and-breakfasts. The city was left awash in rain and gray seawater, though the floodwaters had mostly receded by Saturday morning.

Property manager Nick Trunck was in the city’s historic district to check on several stores and apartments. He said he was prepared for the worst, but the damage consisted of little more than several lost shingles, a lost awning and water seeping into one area.

Trunck had arranged for 10 men to come from Connecticut to help with the cleanup, but after getting a look at the aftermath, he said he didn’t think he needed anything but “a couple of guys and a mop.”

Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr in Orlando, Florida; Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida; Kelli Kennedy and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jennifer Kay, Freida Frisaro and Curt Anderson in Miami; Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Janelle Cogan in Orlando, Florida; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jeffrey Collins on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Jack Jones and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; and Bruce Smith in Charleston, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Hurricane Matthew makes landfall near the eastern tip of Cuba.