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Hurricane Matthew Updates: See The Devastation And Fly Above Hellish Storm That Has Killed 478 So Far

#Hurricane Matthew
by Last Updated

Hurricane Matthew slammed into Florida’s eastern coast in the past hours. Matthew is about 35 miles away from Cape Canaveral and about 45 miles from Daytona Beach and moving north-northwest at 13 mph.

Thankfully, the once Category 5 hurricane that had gusts up to 167 mph, has weakened to a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 mph.

There were gusts of 107 at Cape Canaveral.

Along Florida’s Space Coast, there is sustained winds of 44 mph and a gust of 62 mph as of 1 a.m. on Friday.

However, it is not just the wind that is dangerous, the nasty hurricane is a triple threat of destructive winds, storm surge flooding, and rainfall flooding. The National Weather Service in Jacksonville, Florida, has issued a flood watch and said that “barrier islands are likely to be breached and it is extremely possible that new inlets will be cut off in the worst affected areas.”

Storm surges range from Florida to North Carolina.

President Obama has declared a state of emergency for Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia.

There are currently at least 593,000 without power in Florida.

Residents are urged not to go outside because there are many downed power lines that could electrocute people.

There is going to be potentially dangerous rainfall in the Southeast.

South Carolina could receive up to 14 inches of rain, and coupled with the storm surge, it could approach or even surpass the October 2015 flood event.

Matthew is so strong that birds are trapped in the eye of the storm.

Some insane or brave maniacs flew into the eye of the powerful Category 4 hurricane.

The crazy part is that Hurricane Matthew could go out to see and then loop back and hit Florida again.

One of the reasons for the unusual path of Matthew is that it is being pushed around by another hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.

Hurricane Nicole, a Category 1 hurricane, shoving Matthew around.

https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/784098871337189377

While the United States is lucky to not have experienced hurricane Matthew at it’s strongest, the Caribbean was not as fortunate.

Cuba was leveled by the monster storm.

Matthew easily ripped a roof off a house in Nassau, Bahamas.

Hurricane Matthew’s most tragic impact has been in Haiti. The impoverished nation has raised their death toll to 478. The destruction is heartbreaking and at least 15,000 people have been displaced.

Stay safe everyone.