With Over 140 Now Dead, FL Gov Says ‘Don’t Surf, Don’t Swim, Hurricane Matthew Will Kill You’

More than two million people have been urged to evacuate their homes because Hurricane Matthew ‘is going to kill people’ as it hits the East Coast.

“Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” Psalm 107:28,29 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: I took the photo at the top of this article at Vilano Beach in Saint Augustine, Florida, early this afternoon. Even at that time, the waves were very high and incredibly powerful. Huge sections of the beach had been washed away, with much more to follow. Hurricane Matthew is no joke, and neither are 140 mile per hour winds. Get inside, stay inside, and trust in the Lord to get you through. Please pray for us and for everyone else who is the direct path of Hurricane Matthew, many thanks.

Thousands of families have been caught in gridlock across the state and up the East Coast into the Carolinas and Georgia, as they flee their homes ahead of the storm which has killed at least 140 people. President Barack Obama has declared a federal state of emergency in Florida where the Category Four storm is expected to strike early on Friday morning with winds of up to 145 mph.

Rick Scott: Hurricane Matthew will kill people

Governor Rick Scott of Florida, reiterating a call for people to evacuate on Thursday morning said there is no reason not to leave the state.

‘Do not surf. Do not go on the beach. This will kill you,’ he said. ‘The storm has already killed people. We should expect the same impact in Florida.’

The powerful hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, has already killed at least 136 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic. At its height, the hurricane was a Category Five with wind speeds of more than 157 mph.

The National Weather Service has advised that ‘loss of life’ and ‘immense human suffering’ is possible for those who don’t take precautions. It could also potentially leave approximately seven million people without power.

Gov. Scott has called on the president to declare a pre-landfall emergency for the State of Florida yesterday which grants resources from the federal government such as food, water and tarps.  President Obama warned: ‘I want to emphasize to the public – this is a serious storm. If there is an evacuation order in your community, you need to take it seriously.’

‘Just remember that you can always rebuild,’ he added. ‘You can always repair property. You cannot restore a life if it is lost and we want to make sure that we minimize any possible loss of life or risk to people in these areas.

The storm gained new muscle over the Bahamas on Thursday morning as it battered the island, intensifying from a Category Three with wind speeds of 120mph, to Category Four with 140 mph speeds.

The National Hurricane Center warned at 5am that it was about 60 miles south-southeast of Nassau, the capital, which is located on New Providence – home to about 70 per cent of the country’s 250,000 people.

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Forecasters said the hurricane is likely to hit Florida at around 2am on Friday before heading northwards past Orlando, Jacksonville and up to Charleston.

Gov. Rick Scott has activated 2,500 National Guard to help with the evacuations across the state – and the aftermath of the hurricane. Another 4,000 available if needed, Scott said.  ‘We are going to get ready, but this is going to be catastrophic,’ he warned. ‘If you need to evacuate and you haven’t, evacuate. Time is running out.’  source

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