President Obama declared a state of emergency for Florida Thursday afternoon, clearing the way for federal aid in addition to state and local emergency response teams, according to the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Forecasters said the hurricane could make landfall Thursday night or early Friday.
According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Matthew is expected to remain Category 4 as it nears the east coast of Florida.
Major hurricane for rare 6 days
"Matthew has now been a major (Category 3 or greater) hurricane for six days, something no Atlantic cyclone has managed to achieve since 1963," said Scott Stransky, assistant vice president and principal scientist at AIR Worldwide.
"Models now show Matthew 'riding' the coast of Florida as far as Georgia. Even if no actual landfall occurs, the storm will pass close enough to the coast to have similar impacts and it could be a very significant event. Matthew's radius of maximum winds is only about 10 miles, which makes it an extremely tight storm and the impact it will have will depend on how close it comes to the coast.
"A broad trough approaching the Great Lakes region is expected to steer the cyclone's track first northeastward on Saturday, and then eastward and southeastward, rotating it away from the coast of North Carolina, and perhaps back toward Florida next week. Florida is expected to start experiencing hurricane conditions later today, and they will spread northward through Friday," Stransky noted.
National Guard mobilized, evacuations underway
The Pentagon reported the governors of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina mobilized 4,500 National Guardsmen ahead of the hurricane, according to Fox News.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal ordered a mandatory evacuation of his state's entire coast, covering more than a half-million people. The Georgia coast hasn't seen a hurricane evacuation since 1999, when it narrowly escaped Hurricane Floyd.
Gov. Rick Scott said Florida could see its biggest evacuation ever.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.