Atlantic Coast residents fleeing Hurricane Matthew; man on evacuation route fires at deputies

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Some 3,000 people checked into shelters across Florida, a judge in coastal Georgia suspended a murder trial and deputies in South Carolina shot and wounded a motorist during a dispute over an evacuation route as Hurricane Matthew inched closer to the Atlantic coast.

On Wednesday night, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal urged more than 522,000 residents of six coastal counties to voluntarily evacuate with the threat of Hurricane Matthew approaching the region. An evacuation hasn’t been seen in coastal Georgia in 17 years.

On Tybee Island, home to Georgia’s largest public beach, Loren Kook loaded up his pickup truck with suitcases and a computer late Wednesday afternoon to hit the road to metro Atlanta.

“It seems like a lot of the longtime residents are staying,” said Kook, who moved to the coast four years ago. “I’ve never sat through a Category Whatever. I’ll watch it on TV.”

Authorities say the motorist in South Carolina was shot and wounded by deputies during an altercation Wednesday afternoon over a Hurricane Matthew evacuation route.

Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis told local news outlets it happened about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Moncks Corner when the man came to a check point, knocked down traffic cones and sped off.

The sheriff said when deputies caught up with the driver a few miles away he pointed a gun at them and started shooting. Lewis said the deputies shot back, wounding the man who was taken to the hospital. His name and condition were not immediately released.

In the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick, a judge suspended the murder trial for a man charged with leaving his son to die in a hot car until Monday because of the impending storm.

In the Sunshine State, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said 48 shelters set up in schools already are providing for just over 3,000 people, mostly in coastal counties. Another 13 special needs shelters are currently housing 31 people.

These shelters are in areas where evacuations – either mandatory or voluntary – are underway.

Patients are being transferred from two waterfront hospitals and a nursing home near Daytona Beach to centers away from the coast.

Officials at Florida’s major airports said Thursday they are monitoring conditions as Matthew bears down on the state and warned of delays or cancellations. On its website, Fort Lauderdale International Airport announced plans to close at 10:30 a.m. Officials advised travelers to check with individual airlines about flight plans.

As Matthew put the U.S. in its sights, about 2 million people were encouraged to head inland ahead of the most powerful storm to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade. Matthew killed at least 16 people in the Caribbean as it cut through Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas.

The storm is forecast to near the Florida coast starting Thursday night, potentially as a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds. Any slight deviation could mean landfall or it heading farther out to sea. Either way, forecasters say it will come close enough to wreak havoc along the lower part of the East Coast, dumping up to 15 inches in rain in some spots. Storm surge of 5 feet to 8 feet was expected along the coast from central Florida into Georgia.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said tropical storm conditions with rain and wind are first expected in the state later Thursday morning.

John Long, who lives in the town of Cape Canaveral, said he’s staying put in spite of the warnings.

“The hype is going to be worse than the actual storm. I feel I can do quite well,” said Long, who owns a bike shop and plans to ride out the storm with his cat in his 32-foot recreational vehicle a half-mile from the ocean. He has lived in the Space Coast area for three decades.

“There’s always tremendous buildup and then it’s no stronger than an afternoon thunderstorm. I’m not anticipating that much damage,” he said Wednesday.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has urged people to reconsider.

“This is a dangerous storm,” Scott said. “The storm has already killed people. We should expect the same impact in Florida.”

Similar warnings were issued in Georgia and the Carolinas, where the storm is expected to arrive by the weekend. The last Category 3 storm or higher to hit the United States was Wilma in October 2005. It made landfall with 120 mph winds in southwest Florida, killing five people as it slashed across the state.

In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley reversed the lanes of Interstate 26 for the first time on Wednesday so that all lanes of traffic were headed west and out of Charleston. Plans to reverse the lanes were put in place after hourslong traffic jams during Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Haley planned to call for more evacuations Thursday, which would bring the total to about 500,000 people in the state. Florida urged or ordered about 1.5 million to leave the coast, said Jackie Schutz, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott. About 50,000 people were told to go in Georgia.

Early Thursday, Matthew’s center was about 215 miles southeast of West Palm Beach, Florida, and slogging ever closer at a clip of 12 mph.

Kennedy reported from Fort Lauderdale. Associated Press reporters Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami, Jennifer Kay in Miami Beach, Florida; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jeffrey Collins, Jack Jones and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; and Bruce Smith in Charleston, South Carolina, contributed to this report.