Commuters make their way through heavy rain in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 6, 2016, ahead of hurricane Matthew.
(AFP)
Miami — Hurricane Matthew edged ever closer to Florida Friday with torrential rains and up to 120 mile-an-hour winds after a blast through the Caribbean that reportedly left more than 300 dead in Haiti.
Matthew was downgraded to a category three storm early Friday by the National Hurricane Center, as its wind speed dropped slightly. But Florida still faced its most dangerous hurricane in living memory.
The storm was expected to strike the coast some time Friday morning, although it was not clear if it will be a direct hit or more of a sideswiping blow, which could still be catastrophic.
Over the course of the day, Matthew could scour its way up a 965-kilometer strip of coast from Boca Raton in Florida to just north of Charleston, South Carolina, driving seawater and heavy rain inland.
Only a handful of hurricanes of this strength have ever made landfall in Florida, and none since 1898 has threatened to scythe its way north along the low-lying, densely populated coast into Georgia and beyond.
Evacuation orders were issued for areas covering some three million residents and major cities like Jacksonville, Florida and Savannah, Georgia lay in the path of the terrible storm.
Daytona Beach imposed a curfew that was to last until dawn on Saturday, and President Barack Obama declared emergencies in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, promising federal aid.