Updated: 4:30 p.m. EDT

(Bloomberg) – More than one million Florida homes and businesses were without power on Friday after Hurricane Matthew lashed the coast with high winds and heavy rain.

Volusia County, which includes Daytona Beach, and Brevard County, which includes Cocoa Beach, were hit hardest by power failures, according to an e-mail Friday from the office of Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Matthew, still a Category 3 storm with winds of 115 miles (185 kilometers) an hour, was 35 miles east of St. Augustine and following the shoreline, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said in an advisory at 3 p.m. New York time. At least 2 million people have been ordered to flee its path, with evacuations under way in Georgia and South Carolina.

"While we are fortunate that Matthew has yet to make landfall in Florida, we still have a deadly Category 3 hurricane a few miles offshore," Eric Silagy, chief executive officer of NextEra Energy Inc.'s Florida Power & Light utility, said in a statement. "Based on our grid's performance thus far, we're seeing fewer outages and faster restoration times."

There's about a 20 percent chance for Matthew to come ashore in Florida later Friday, said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan. South Carolina stands a greater risk of taking a direct hit from the heart of the storm early Saturday, he said.

Crews restored power to about 228,000 customers, FP&L said on its website. More than 1 million customers remain in the storm's path. All power should be restored in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and to a majority of customers in Palm Beach County, by the end of the day, the company said.

Fuel terminal

Kinder Morgan Inc. shut its fuel terminal in Orlando, as well as the Central Florida Pipeline that supplies it with diesel and jet fuel from Tampa, company spokesman Richard Wheatley said in an email. Kinder Morgan is evacuating and closing its Elba Island liquefied natural gas import terminal near Savannah, Georgia, until the storm passes.

FP&L's St. Lucie nuclear plant remained shut, according to a daily report from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company ramped down the plant's Unit 2 reactor Thursday in anticipation of high winds. A second unit was already shut for refueling. The company's Turkey Point nuclear station in South Florida remained at full power, according to the NRC.

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11:45 a.m.

(Bloomberg) – More than half a million Florida homes and businesses were blacked out as Hurricane Matthew, set to become the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since 2005, bumped along the coast.

Brevard County, which includes Cocoa Beach, was hardest hit by power failures, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from utility websites about 8:30 a.m. New York time. NextEra Energy Inc.'s Florida Power & Light utility reported about 146,750 customers without power there.

The storm was downgraded Friday to Category 3, with winds of 120 miles (193 kilometers) an hour. Matthew's center was forecast to move near or over the east coast of Florida through Friday night, and near or over the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said. At least 2 million people have been ordered to flee its path, with evacuations under way in Georgia and South Carolina.

Kinder Morgan Inc. shut its fuel terminal at Orlando, as well as the Central Florida Pipeline that supplies it with diesel and jet fuel from Tampa, company spokesman Richard Wheatley said in a Friday email.

Florida Power & Light said Thursday that as many as 2.5 million customers could lose power during the storm, with some experiencing extended outages as sections of the power network may need to be rebuilt. The expectation assumed Matthew would hit near Cape Canaveral as a Category 4 storm.

The utility might need 11 days to two weeks to restore 90 percent of customers should the damage be that severe, Matthew Cordaro, a trustee of the Long Island Power Authority and the former chief executive officer of the U.S. Midwest's power grid operator, said by phone Thursday.

On Thursday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it dispatched additional inspectors to three nuclear plants and will activate its regional response center in Atlanta. Florida Power & Light's St. Lucie plant on the east coast of Florida "is likely to receive hurricane-force winds and heavy rain beginning early Friday," the agency said in a press release.

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