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Hurricane Matthew hits Florida
ORLANDO: The first major hurricane threatening a direct hit on the US in more than 10 years lashed Florida on Friday with heavy rains and winds after killing at
ORLANDO: The first major hurricane threatening a direct hit on the US in more than 10 years lashed Florida on Friday with heavy rains and winds after killing at least 339 people in Haiti on its destructive march north through the Caribbean.
Hurricane Matthew packed gusts of 115 kph and heavy downpours across coastal communities in Florida as the storm’s eye moved parallel to and just offshore of Florida’s east coast near Cape Canaveral, home to the nation’s chief space launch site, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
“We are seriously ground zero here in Cape Canaveral - hunkered down, lights flickering winds are crazy,” said resident Sandy Wilk on Twitter.
At 5 am local time, Matthew was about 65 km south-east of Cape Canaveral, the hurricane center said. It was heading north, northwest at about 20 kph and was expected to continue on this track through the early part of Friday. The center said the storm is expected to gradually weaken during the next 48 hours.
NASA and the US Air Force, which operate the Cape Canaveral launch site, took steps to safeguard personnel and equipment.
A team of 116 employees was bunkered down inside Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Control Center to ride out the hurricane.
“We’ve had some close calls, but as far as I know it’s the first time we’ve had the threat of a direct hit,” NASA spokesman George Diller said by email from the hurricane bunker.
No significant damage or injuries were reported in West Palm Beach and other communities in south Florida where the storm downed trees and power lines earlier in the night, CNN and local media reported.
About 300,000 Florida households were without power, local media reported. In West Palm Beach, once lit street lights and houses went dark and Interstate 95 was empty as the storm rolled through the community of 100,000 people. Hurricane Matthew was carrying extremely dangerous winds of 195 kph, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Matthew’s winds had dropped on Thursday night and into Friday morning, downgrading it to a Category 3 on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, where it could either plow inland or tear along the Atlantic coast through Friday night, the Miami-based center said.
Few storms with winds as powerful as Matthew’s have struck Florida, and the NHC warned of “potentially disastrous impacts.” The US National Weather Service said the storm could be the most powerful to strike northeast Florida in 118 years. A dangerous storm surge was expected to reach up to 3.35 metres along the Florida coast, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the Miami-based NHC, said on CNN.
