Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, blasted the Bahamas on Thursday as it headed for the southeastern United States after killing at least 260 people, mostly in Haiti, on its deadly northward march.
Matthew, carrying winds off 220km/h, was "relentlessly pounding" the northwestern part of the island chain en route to Florida's Atlantic coast, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane was likely to remain a Category 4 storm as it approached the US, where it could either take direct aim at Florida or brush along the state's coast through Friday night, the centre said, warning of "potentially disastrous impacts."
Hurricane conditions were expected in parts of Florida by later on Thursday and a local power company had more than doubled its forecast of outages to as many as 2.5 million homes and businesses.
Some 261 people died in Haiti, local officials said, and thousands were displaced after the storm flattened homes, uprooted trees and inundated neighborhoods earlier in the week. Four people were killed in the Dominican Republic, which neighbors Haiti.
As the storm passed about 40km from the Bahamas capital of Nassau, howling gusts of wind brought down palms and other trees and flipped shingles off the rooftops of many houses. Bahamas Power and Light disconnected much of Nassau as Matthew bore down on the town.
Local media reports from southern New Providence indicated that the communities of Yamacraw, Coral Harbour and Pinewood were hit hard by floods after a storm surge of some 3 to 4.5 metres. There had been no reports of casualties.
It was too soon to predict where Matthew might do the most of its damage in the US but the National Hurricane Center's hurricane warning extended up the Atlantic coast from southern Florida through Georgia and into South Carolina. More than 12 million people in the US were under hurricane watches and warnings, according to the Weather Channel.
ROADS FILLED WITH EVACUEES
Roads in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were jammed, and gas stations and food stores ran out of supplies as the storm approached with high winds, strong storm surges and drenching rain.
Florida Governor Rick Scott warned there could be "catastrophic" damage if Matthew slammed directly into the state and urged some 1.5 million people there to heed evacuation orders.
"If you're reluctant to evacuate, just think about all the people... already killed," Scott said at a news conference on Thursday. "Time is running out. This is clearly either going to have a direct hit or come right along the coast, and we're going to have hurricane-force winds."
Scott, who activated several thousand National Guard troops to help deal with the storm, warned that millions of people were likely to be left without power.
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina opened shelters for evacuees. As of Thursday morning, more than 3000 people were being housed in 60 shelters in Florida, Scott said.
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina declared states of emergency, empowering their governors to mobilise the National Guard.
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Florida, the White House said, a move that authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
Hundreds of passenger flights were canceled in south Florida, and the cancellations were expected to spread north in coming days along the storm's path, airlines including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said. A FedEx spokeswoman also warned of possible disruptions to package services.
Theme parks and other attractions in the central Florida city of Orlando such as Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld were closing on Thursday afternoon and would remain closed through Friday, according to their websites. Schools were closed across the region.
On Thursday afternoon (local time) Matthew was 205km east-southeast of West Palm Beach, the hurricane centre said. It was heading northwest and was expected to continue on this track.
The eye, or centre, of the storm was forecast to pass close to Freeport, on Grand Bahama, the most industrialised part of Bahamas.
On Tuesday and Wednesday Matthew, the strongest hurricane in the Caribbean since Felix struck Central America in 2007, whipped Cuba and Haiti with 225km/h winds and torrential rain, pummeling towns and destroying livestock, crops and homes.
The last major hurricane, classified as a storm bearing sustained winds of more than 177km/h to hit the US was Wilma in 2005.
