Evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people has been underway in Florida and South Carolina as Hurricane Matthew roared closer to the United States after leaving 16 people dead and carving a path of destruction across Haiti.

The impending weather prompted Florida Gov. Rick Scott to ask US President Obama to declare a pre-landfall emergency, activate 1,000 more National Guard members to join the 1,500 already positioned in the state and suspend all tolls in the affected areas, including the entire Florida Turnpike, Alligator Alley, Central Florida Expressway Authority and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority.

"Based on the most recent forecast I received from the National Hurricane Center, the eye of Hurricane Matthew is going to be much closer to Florida," Scott said Wednesday night in a statement, cited by the "USA Today".

"There are hurricane watches and warnings along Florida’s entire east coast and we now have Tropical Storm warnings on Florida’s Gulf Coast. This storm is serious and protecting life remains our number one priority," he said.

During a briefing with reporters earlier Wednesday, Scott also implored those who had been ordered to evacuate to do so. The governor added that the state is "preparing for the worst, hoping for the best and not taking any chances. 

Tropical storm conditions are expected to reach parts of the Florida coast by early Thursday, intensifying to hurricane conditions in some areas later that day, the National Hurricane Center warned. Matthew had top sustained winds of 115 mph, a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Wednesday evening and is forecast to strengthen in coming days, the center said.

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina declared states of emergency ahead of the most powerful storm to rock the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Felix killed more than 100 people, most in Nicaragua, in 2007. 

Source : QNA