Matthew May Cause Most Dangerous Flooding Since Floyd

Hurricane Matthew weakened as it charged up the East Coast, but it still caused significant damage along the way. At least 10 storm related deaths were reported in the United States. 

The biggest physical damage appears to be flooding. Forecasters say it could rival Hurricane Floyd which caused historic flooding in North Carolina in 1999. 

The storm delivered high winds and rains from Florida all the way to Virginia. Some residents evacuated, about 2 million are without power and everyone endured drenching rains.

The National Hurricane Center expects it to continue weakening through the night Saturday but not before pounding North Carolina. Television station WRAL reports parking lots in Raleigh are like lakes, there are thousands upon thousands of homes and businesses without power, and flash flooding is reported in numerous cities surrounding Raleigh-Durham.

WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel says the scale used to categorize hurricanes is only based on wind strength and not storm surge or rainfall amounts. Therefore, even a weakened hurricane could still pack a punch with storm surge and rain.

"It all boils down to impact and impact on human life and property and the Saffir Simpson Scale simply doesn't do that," he said.

Coastal communities in Virginia were already feeling the brunt of Matthew late Saturday with weather alerts advising drivers to stay off streets due to flash flooding.

Matthew sideswiped two of the South's oldest and most historic cities - Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina - and also brought torrential rain and stiff winds to places like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. It actually made landfall in Charleston with winds of 75 mph and kept moving toward North Carolina where it looks like it will cause more damages

"We are all blessed that Matthew stayed off our coast," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. "We are blessed that we didn't have a direct hit."

Within an hour of residents being allowed to return Saturday to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, David Villmow had fired up the two pizza ovens at his beachfront restaurant, The Art of Pizza. He was hoping to start serving customers in a few hours.
  
"We got really lucky," he said. "We could be looking at a whole lot worse. All you see are downed signs, downed fences, a few gas station sign letters missing."

A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man stranded on a sailboat in a river near Georgia's Tybee Island. And North Carolina officials said they had to rescue numerous people from cars and homes. 

Matthew's deadly force was made all too clear in Haiti, where the hurricane roared ashore on Tuesday with terrifying 145 mph winds. The death toll is at least 800 souls and 470 people among them were from one hard-hit district alone. Some areas wiped flat by Matthew still cannot be reached to see if there are survivors.

Back in the U.S., forecasters say Matthew's shift eastward made a difference - had it moved 20 to 30 miles closer to the coast, it could've caused widespread devastation.

Tracking the Damage

The streets of Charleston - a city of handsome pre-Civil War homes, church steeples and romantic carriage rides - were also flooded.
  
South Carolina's golf-and-tennis resort Hilton Head Island also took a blow as the eye of the storm passed 20 miles to the east. At least one gust of 87 mph was recorded at Hilton Head.
  
The two roads onto the island of 40,000 people were blocked by fallen pine trees, and many roads were under water.
  
All access points to Georgia's St. Simons Island from the mainland were blocked. Tybee Island also took a beating, with gusts clocked at 93 mph.
  
Three-quarters of a million people in South Carolina were left without electricity, and 250,000 were in the dark in coastal Georgia. About 1 million people in Florida lost power.

Four deaths were blamed on the storm in Florida, three in Georgia and three in North Carolina. The deaths included an elderly Florida couple who died from carbon monoxide fumes while running a generator in their garage and two women who were killed when trees fell on a home and a camper.
  
The storm raked yet another historic Southern city on its way up the coast: St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded by the Spanish in the 1500s and includes many historic homes. The city was left awash in rain and gray seawater Friday.
  
Property manager Nick Trunck went to check on several stores and apartments. He said the damage consisted of little more than several lost shingles, a lost awning and water seeping into one area.
  
Trunck had arranged for 10 men to come from Connecticut to help with the cleanup, but after getting a look at the damage, he said he could probably get by with "a couple of guys and a mop."
  
Property data firm CoreLogic projected the storm would cause $4 billion to $6 billion in insured losses on home and commercial properties. That compares with Hurricane Katrina's $40 billion and Superstorm Sandy's $20 billion.