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As Haiti picks up the pieces, hundreds of buses begin a mass evacuation in the US with roads jammed and businesses shutting down.<\/p>\nForced evacuations are\u00a0under way in Florida’s Brevard and Martin counties, with governor Rick Scott saying the state could be facing “its biggest evacuation ever”.<\/p>\n
A mass\u00a0evacuation of a quarter of a million residents has also begun\u00a0in South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Both states, as well as\u00a0Georgia and North Carolina, have issued a state of emergency.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0White House\u00a0said emergency supplies had\u00a0been moved to staging posts in the southeast of the country, while many shops have also seen a run on\u00a0supplies such as propane, batteries and tarpaulin.<\/p>\n
“I want to emphasize to the public this is a serious storm,” President Obama warned.<\/p>\n
“Even if you don’t get the full force of the hurricane we are still going to be seeing tropical force winds, the potential for storm surge and all of that could have a devastating effect.”<\/p>\n
Florida’s\u00a0governor\u00a0urged people living in\u00a0coastal areas\u00a0“to go early, leave now” and to\u00a0stock up on three days’ worth of food, water and medicine.<\/p>\n
He said residents must be prepared for the possibility of a “catastrophic hurricane”.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0fleet of\u00a0315 buses, the National Guard and other law enforcement officers have been mobilised\u00a0to help evacuate two coastal counties in South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Bumper-to-bumper traffic jammed Interstate 26 as people tried to get a head start on\u00a0the\u00a03pm start time for the evacuation in Charleston County and Beaufort.<\/p>\n
Traffic flows\u00a0have been reversed to allow more people to escape the coast.<\/p>\n
The storm has already\u00a0left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean, killing at least 11 people and\u00a0slamming\u00a0into Haiti with howling 145mph winds.<\/p>\n
The peninsula battered most in\u00a0Haiti has been cut off from the rest of the country, with floodwater\u00a0running at shoulder height in\u00a0places, and reserves of drinking water running low.<\/p>\n
“What we know is that many, many houses have been damaged. Some lost rooftops and they’ll have to be replaced while others were totally destroyed,” interior minister Francois Anick Joseph said.<\/p>\n
In the neighbouring Dominican Republic, four lost their lives. One person died in Colombia, and another in St Vincent and the Grenadines.<\/p>\n
Dozens\u00a0of homes were also\u00a0destroyed in the eastern town of Baracoa in Cuba – and Matthew\u00a0is now moving north at 8mph and\u00a0bearing down on the Bahamas<\/p>\n
It\u00a0is expected to hit\u00a0the US\u00a0by Thursday evening when a five-feet\u00a0storm surge on the Atlantic coast\u00a0could cause significant flooding. The\u00a0hurricane could also trigger tornadoes.<\/p>\n
Matthew’s vicious winds have\u00a0weakened slightly to a 120mph Category 3 storm, but forecasters say that\u00a0was expected and\u00a0that it will strengthen again in the coming days.<\/p>\n
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said people stubbornly staying put could be putting the lives of others at risk if they need help when the storm hits.<\/p>\n
Some petrol stations have been running out of fuel in the area, and the state’s attorney general\u00a0warned against stores bumping up prices to take advantage of\u00a0people filling their vehicles to the brim.<\/p>\n
In nearby\u00a0Florida, where multiple hurricane warnings are in force,\u00a0officials warned people against complacency – especially in the south of the state –\u00a0after a recent\u00a011-year break\u00a0without a major storm, the longest on record.<\/p>\n
People\u00a0in the central Brevard County will be able to hunker down in shelters from 4pm local time on Wednesday, while\u00a0patients in Cape Caneveral hospital have been moved inland.<\/p>\n
The last storm to hit Florida from the Atlantic was Katrina in 2005, while Wilma – which hit with 120mph winds the same year – caused an estimated $21bn (\u00a316bn) of damage and left thousands in the state without power.<\/p>\n
Sky News<\/p>\n
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