Floridians cleaned out the shelves at supermarkets and hardware stores and lined up at gas pumps as they readied for a “direct hit” from Hurricane Matthew — which looks like a spooky skull on an infrared weather map.
“We have to be prepared for a major hurricane. We have to prepare for a direct hit,” Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday.
“People have less than 24 hours to prepare. Having a plan could be the difference between life and death.”
Lance Randall wasn’t taking any chances this time after living through other hurricanes, loading up on gas Wednesday.
“We learned from Andrew. And Katrina. And Wilma,” Randall told the Miami Herald as he pumped 30 gallons into a generator for his home.
The damage is expected to be concentrated in West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie and Daytona Beach, where winds could gust up to 130 mph and the storm could dump up to a foot of rain, said AccuWeather’s Mike Doll.
The eerie skull image of the storm went viral online when it was released by the NASA Earth Science Office.
The evil-looking red “eye” is the actual eye of the storm, and the parts that look like teeth are convective clouds, CNN reported.
At least four states — Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia — issued preemptive states of emergency that President Obama urged Americans to take seriously.
Matthew briefly transformed into a Category 5 storm at its peak in Haiti, but was downgraded to a Category 3 with sustained winds of 115 mph Tuesday evening.
It will likely become a Category 4 hurricane — defined as a major storm with sustained winds of 130 to 156 mph — by the time it gets to the United States.
More than 1 million people in its path, which is set to wind up the coast through Saturday before heading out to sea, were forced to evacuate their homes.
Early Thursday, Matthew was churning through the Bahamas on a path forecast to take it close to the East Coast, where authorities were pursuing evacuations.
Hurricane warnings have been extended northward from the Flagler/Volusia County line to Fernandina Beach in Florida. This includes Orlando and Jacksonville.
With Post wires