‘Hurricane Matthew’ Timeline & Latest Friday Updates: 4 Dead in Florida; 1M Houses Experience Power Outage [VIDEOS]
Hurricane Matthew made its landfall in Daytona past 9 PM Wednesday, it ran with sustained winds at 115MPH. The storm was making its way into Florida from West Palm Beach moving towards Northwest at 12 miles per hour.
At 11 PM Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center issued a Hurricane Warning from Fernandina Beach in the First Coast up to the Flagler County line. At the time, it was already heading to the central Bahamas. First Coast News reports that Hurricane Matthew was already at 10 miles per hour.
At 2 PM Thursday, Hurricane Matthew was realized as a strong Category Four storm with sustained winds at 140 miles an hour. At 3PM Thursday, Governor Rick Scott announced mandatory evacuation in all counties in Florida and has advised all residents to leave immediately. At the time, all waterlines near the barrier islands were shut off and will remain closed until the storm finally leaves Florida.
St. Johns River dangerously close to spilling over-- and Matthew isn't even here yet. We hope everyone along the river has evacuated... pic.twitter.com/rnOgRjw4mZ
— First Coast News (@FCN2go) October 7, 2016
At 12 AM Friday, the storm has moved away from North West Bahamas. At 4AM Friday, Hurricane Matthew's eyewall is nearing the Central Florida coast at 5 miles gap. Despite this distance, it was already reported that the water at St. John's River was about to reach spill level.
This just speaks for itself #JaxBeach #FCNStorm pic.twitter.com/KDzz4ycLot — Katie Jeffries (@Katie_Jeffries) October 7, 2016
At 12 PM Friday, The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office announced closure in all bridges in Duval County. All bridges will be reopened by Saturday morning. By 5 PM Friday, effects of the storm was strongly felt at Jacksonville Beach. And at 6PM Friday, the first death was reported at Crescent City, Florida. There were also 8 people injured in Powers Avenue due to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an exposed generator.
https://t.co/sKPkgAgFlR Video of Matthew causing major power outages!
— Crash (@GaleNichtula) October 7, 2016
CNN reports that there are already over 1 million houses in Florida experiencing power outage as of 6:52 PM Friday. There are already 23,000 residents being sheltered in 180 different locations. Governor Scott also announced in a news conference Friday that even when the storm leaves the vicinity of Florida, rains will still continue all over the area and will cause more flooding and river water spilling. "This storm is, unfortunately, still in our state and it's going to be in our state for a while and we are going to still continue to feel the remnants tonight," Scott says.
