Hurricane Matthew batters the Florida coast

Authorities had made over 100 swift water rescues in Fayetteville, North Carolina, since Hurricane Matthew made landfall on Saturday.

Matthew has been dumping rain on the coasts of SC and Georgia for more than 12 hours – and how unsafe the storm surge turns out to be will rely in part on what the tides are doing when the surge is highest.

In South Carolina: “Currently more than 700,000 homes are without power”, South Carolina Public Radio’s Vince Kolb-Lugo reports in Columbia.

Bill Orlove, a spokesperson for Florida Power and Light, said in an interview withweather.com on Friday that the company brought in 15,000 crews from all over the country to aid in the storm impacts, with workers coming from as far away as MA and Texas.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott told reporters this morning that he was particularly concerned about storm surge.

Deadly Hurricane Matthew bearing down on FloridaIt moved near and over the coast of northeast Florida and Georgia through Friday night and was expected near or over the coast of SC on Saturday. A hurricane watch extended all the way to Duck on the Outer Banks.

“When the worst of the winds get up to southeastern North Carolina, hopefully we will be past the high tide and in fact a bit closer to the low tide”, he said. The worse of the storm is expected to move in overnight and Matthew is expected to be just off Charleston about daybreak as a Category 2 hurricane with 100 miles per hour winds.

At least 283 people died in just one part of Haiti’s southwest, the region that bore the brunt of the storm, said Emmanuel Pierre, an Interior Ministry coordinator in Les Cayes.

President Barack Obama and officials urged people to heed safety instructions. “Listen to local officials, prepare, take care of each other”. “And it is still deadly”, McCrory said.

“The potential for storm surge, loss of life and severe property damage exists”, Mr Obama said. But it added that the storm is expected to remain a hurricane through tonight.

Matthew is forecast to move near or over the SC coast Saturday morning (local time), the National Hurricane Centre said. The hurricane has caused major transportation disruptions, with more than 5,200 flights canceled between Wednesday and Saturday.

In areas the storm had already passed, residents and officials began to assess the damage.

Fresh produce companies in Florida were unavailable to comment on Thursday afternoon as offices were closed.

Florida is facing a major hurricane in a decade. Half a million residents were ordered to evacuate in the Jacksonville area, but a substantial number are believed to have stayed put.

“Again, we could not go because that’s when the winds were high”, Chaney said. With rivers rising, the governor said he expected deaths to increase.

Governors in North and SC warned residents to get out in advance of the storm, which could drop as much as 15 inches of rain. “It is getting worse”.

About 310,000 people have been evacuated from coastal areas in the state. Forecasters said 15 inches of rain and a storm surge of up to 9 feet were possible in places.

The hurricane whipped Myrtle Beach, S.C., with 75 miles per hour winds and surging water flooded Wilmington, N.C., and broke a water-level record set during Hurricane Hazel in 1954, the National Weather Service said. Anything over 3 feet in the city is life-threatening, Mayor Lenny Curry said.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter scrapped plans to leave for Colombia on Saturday over concerns about Hurricane Matthew, including its impact on military facilities as it strikes the East Coast, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency in SC.

At least 11 deaths in the Tar Heel state have been attributed to the storm and three people in the state are missing.