i talked to my detective captain today and i asked him, do you have body bags? are you prepared for mass casualties? because if people do not leave and we get 140-mile-per-hour whipped gusts in some of our mobile home areas, we will have fatalities. >> this group, many of us have dealt with storms in the past, charlie, frances, jean, will ma. this is like none of those. >> we can rebuild homes, we can rebuild business, i think of my own family, we can't rebuild a life. right now, hurricane matthew is heading for the ooels korm with a superstorm sandy storm surge. >> more than 2 million people evacuated. tens of thousands are without

coast. that blamed for nearly 300 deaths in haiti. good morning, everyone. >> at this hour, the eye of hurricane matthew is growing more than 2 million people evacuated, 10,000 without power. matthew moves closer to the coast. that storm being blamed for nearly 300 deaths in haiti. >> hurricane matthew is growing dangerously closer to florida's coast. the monster storm may have waned to a category 2, but it's the strongest storm to hit the eastern seaboard in over a decade. officials fearing historical damage. 2 million are under evacuation orders but thousands have decided to risk their lives. the sheriff gave this grave

stand. they are leaving. i have already checked. i'm not saying this to be theatrical. you know me. i talked to my detective captain earlier today and i asked him, do you have body bags? are you prepared for mass casualties because if people do not leave and we get 140-mile-an-hour wind gusts in some of our mobile homeplaces, we are going to have fatalities. >> in just a matter of hours matthew is expected to it's closed nasa's kennedy space center. even the happiest place on earth, walt disney world closing the doors for the fourth time in its 45 year history. 3500 national guard members are active throughout the state. only so much that quarterback done at this time. over 300,000 florida residents are without power and it is just the beginning. forecasters say some areas could

feet. all of this leaving a trail of death and destruction across the caribbean. at least 283 people killed. u.s. officials hoping against a similar devastating loss. >> to get an update on what's happening with the hurricane and how it moves along the eastern border let's move to nbc meteorologist bonnie. >> right now the storm continues to work its way towards florida. we're getting some of those re moving across a good portion of the ocean just parallel to florida. this shows the track which shows that we're not getting as many of those as we saw yesterday. it's more consistent with movement to the northwest. category 3 storm and we still have hurricane warnings. hurricane warnings are impacting 11.2 million people. pretty high number. we have 120-mile-per-hour winds

the track takes it north right along the periphery of south carolina and georgia. and really coastal georgia i'm really concerned with when it comes to storm surge. watch as we track and go through sunday and further on into the start of next week. the weekend. it does a very unusual thing. it loops back in the same direction it came from. now good news is here that if it does occur, even though it's far out, it's likely to be much weaker. it's something to keep close watch on for bonnie. jacksonville will be the last expected in florida. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez is live in jacksonville. gabe, it's the calm before the storm there. people still bracing themselves for worse than what they've already seen. >> reporter: hey there, good morning. it's already the calm before the

>> we're going to take it back, gabe. your microphone is cutting out obviously from the conditions, the weather conditions. hope to check back in with you once you get that fixed. gabe, thanks so much. hope to hear from you a little bit later on. now want to bring you to ron motte who is in daytona beach. ron, what's the latest there? >> reporter: well, a breezy daytona beach florida, tonight. nasty weather and the worse is yet to come. now we did get a little bit of good news at 11:00 eastern time update last night which is forecasts to push the eye a little further east once it gets into daytona beach. usually means we won't see the strongest winds around the circulation of matthew. the winds will be strong. we are anticipating upwards of 90, maybe 100 miles per hour sustained for a couple hours at

to be in daytona beach around the next high tide. that is expected to occur around 12:45 p.m. this afternoon and that is when the biggest threat from any sort of storm surge and flooding is going to occur. it's the storm surge in the water that typically is responsible for a lot of deaths we see in these hurricanes, not so much the wind. that's the hour we're going to be most alert here in the daytona beach area. the forecasts at surge and that almost certainly will push water into some of the homes and businesses along uthenland a mile hich runs along or so, the inner coastal water way which runs the length of florida. a lot of real estate there, expensive real estate. folks who are hunkered down there might anticipate water into their homes.

people getting sand bags. also, officials telling folks just because the eye passes doesn't mean the storm is over. this is a large system so we do anticipate that there will be hurricane force and certainly tropical storm force winds that will blow around this area for hours after the eye has passed. possibly into tonight and maybe even into saturday morning. one last thing, a lot of folks are not thinking about this and for good reason because it's a long way off, the first part of next week the storm could possibly reloop around the ocean right off the florida coast, reenergize and come back and hit some of the same communities that it's hitting today. that will be at a time when these folks are trying to clean up and especially trying to get the power back on. that's the very latest from daytona beach. going to be a long friday. send it back to you. >> certainly a long, tough holiday weekend.

beach. thanks. let's go back over to bonnie schneider. hours or days before officials feel that they are in the clear, so to speak? >> days, certainly. one of the reasons for that is the storm surge. even though the storm is a category 3 and it has been a little bit more east of where it was in toerms of getting close to florida, what you're looking at is a powerful storm surge 4 further to the north it gets a lot more dicey because it could be 7 to 11 feet of storm surge, particularly here in northern floor darks coastal georgia, even into parts of south carolina as that water just funnels on in. we're watching that closely. that's a look at the big weather story of the day. now here's a closer look at the weather where you are. temperatures nice and mild across much of the great lakes in the 70s, near 80s in

looking good there, but a little bit humid. so we'll be watching for that storm surge with matthew and as the track is pushing it further to the north. >> bonnie, thank you so much. just ahead, we'll hear from the weather channel in fort pierce and we'll continue with the special edition of "early today." i'm here in bristol, virginia. and now...i'm in bristol, tennessee. on this side of the road is virginia... and on this side it's tennessee. no matter which state in the country you live in, you could save hundreds on car insurance by switching to geico. look, i'm in virginia... i'm in tennessee... virginia... tennessee... and now i'm in virginessee.

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[music] no, no, no, no, people are both soft and strong... yey! which is why our products are too. angel soft. hurricane matthew is just off the east coast of florida heading north in line, daytona beach, jacksonville. also the georgia and south carolina coast friday night into saturday. we've already seen wind gusts over 70 miles an hour and over

it's going to be a long couple of days up the coast. keep you covered on the weather channel. >> mike, thank you very much. joining us on the phone is peter ross with florida power and light. thank you for being with us. we know in the past hour the number of people without power has jumped to at least 300,000? >> yeah, frances. we've got a little north of 300,000 customers without power right now and we're seeing that primarily in palm beach county and the count that which we call the treasure coast. then we have it still affecting a lot of our customers. we have a million florida power and light customers who are in harm's way today and feeling the storm now, feeling it throughout the day. got a lot of work ahead of us today and a lot of people still feeling the brunt of this storm. >> talk a little about the number of crews you have out to accommodate this as you are expecting that number to jump,

should say? >> you know, i'm not sure exactly, you know, what the feeling would be for that, but i do know we've got 15,000 men and women who are ready to jump into action here this morning and start reconnecting folks. we brought a lot of them in from out of state and positioned them so that they are ready to go as soon as it's safe for them to be in the field restoring power. our customers want quick action, so safety is our top priority and behind want people to get reconnected quick. we have a small army of folks ready to go and once day breaks here and we're able to visually see the damage and work in the daylight, we're going to be on it. >> peter ross with florida power and light. we'll let you get back to work. thank you so much for taking the time to get us up to date. following hurricane matthew as it goes up the east coast. it's left more than 300,000 people without power as we were hearing from that official. it's the strongest storm to hit

decade. we are live in orlando. marianna, good to have you with us. looks like things are picking up where you are now. >> reporter: yeah, the wind just started to pick up and the rain as well. this is supposed to be vacation paradise, but instead you have 144,000 tourists in orlando with tourists and evacuees hunkered down with a category pass. all four parks are closed. we're beginning to see the storm as it goes through this community. >> thank you very much for that. appreciate that update. just ahead, what's next for hurricane matthew. we'll hear from the national hurricane center. stay with us. which you are you? be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

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hurricane matthew may have downgrade today a category 3. heavy rains and dangerous winds topping 120 miles per hour are already hitting the states of florida, downed trees and widespread power outages. supporting evacuations are

and join blake mccoy. are they breathing a sigh of relief that they're not being as affected as other parts of florida? >> absolutely. this morning people in ft. lauderdale they're waking up and feeling like they dodged a bullet with this storm. that's because the hurricane ended up staying about 100 miles out away from shore which was further than expected which means that we did see some outer nothing as significant as we were expected. all warnings have been lifted for south florida. we're expecting very minimal damage when people wake up. about 11,000 people are without power right now in broward county. the winds are light enough where crews are able to be right now restoring that power. so we expect them to be back up and running very soon. the good news is that with that storm passing now, businesses will start to reopen here in

really good news for travel is that we are set to resume this morning at the ft. lauderdale airport and the miami airport, two big international airports. we're expecting flights to resume this morning. things are back normal here in south florida as the attention turns further up the coast. >> nbc's blake mccoy, thank you for that update. much more on hurricane matthew. stay with us. see me. e at me. see me. see me. see me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. i'm not contagious. see me to know that... ...i won't stop until i find what works. discover cosentyx, a different kind of medicine for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. proven to help the majority of people find clear or almost clear skin. 8 out of 10 people saw 75% skin clearance at 3 months. while the majority saw 90% clearance. do not use if you are allergic to cosentyx.

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people are look being probably saying, this is nothing. i've been through 100 of them. this is not what we're talking about. the worst is yet to come. get out. just get out. we can't save you. power's going to go out. you're going to lose your cell phone, you're going to lose your internet and you won't get a call for help. when you realize you're in trouble, you'll say, you need you, we can't get there. >> that's the police chief of daytona beach warning residents trying to ride out the in the midst of this historic hurricane, they're warning residents not to put themselves and others at danger. >> good morning, sir. it's good to be with us. i know you have a lot going on right now. we appreciate your time. can you give us an update what conditions are like in fort pete and for your crews out there? >> we're starting it now so we

we're getting in the cars to find out what's happening across the city. >> the warnings for residents to evacuate, they had time, what is the message now to people in your community? >> well, the message now is to be extremely cautious. do not venture out. be very alert, aware of power lines that are down. that's always the biggest problend if they don't need to be out. emergency crews are getting out. determining what needs to be done. just be patient. we'll be out there as quickly as possible. >> can you give us a sense what the night was like for your crews? was there an influx of calls as a result of the storm? were you seeing a lot of responses from folks out in the community? >> well, we couldn't respond to anything because once the winds got over 45 miles an hour it becomes a risk to the officers

officers into the police station. they bunkered down here and couldn't respond. we don't know all the information yet. >> talk a little bit about today what's going to happen as far as when the sun comes out and when you start having more crews out there, what is the anticipation for your members? >> well, we're in a coordinated effort with a lot of other responsible for the utilities. we will work closely with them to make sure that things stay safe and to try to get the town back to its normal order as soon as possible. >> edward cunningham, we thank you for your time. we'll be right back. ? when is your flu shot more than a flu shot?

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