At the top of hour, i am alice right here at msnbc, the hurricane is closing in on the southeast united states. As many as one and a half Million People have been ordered to evacuate throughout the sunshine state. Half a million more in georgia, thats where president obama signed a declaration of emergency as well. Another 3,000 are ready to stand standing by. Destructive flooding in florida. Thats another hour plus to go. States governor is warning president , do take this storm seriously our number one priority is protecting every life in the state. I think about my grandchildren and daughters and wife, i want everybody to survive this. We can rebuild homes and businesses, i just think of my own family, we cannot rebuild a life. Shelby danielson is standing by for us. What is it like out there but i can see from myself that you are get pounded with rain. Reporter absolutely, just horizontal rain blowing through here and the wind is powerful. You can see we are close to the front right here. The bridge which will close down and you cannot see it right now but the water is so choppy and on the other side of this bridge is Saint Augustine. There are still large boats tied up to that marina. There are restaurants and businesses that align this bay front. It will come down flying across of these businesses. Thats a concern that we discussed earlier with the fire chief here and most of these businesses and if not all of Saint Augustine. You cannot see but they are further below all around the corner. Thats what happened yesterday, all around Saint Augustine before people evacuated the last minute. They made sure everything was boarded up because they know the danger thats coming this way, especially with those storm surges right here expected of nine feet high at least. Thats extraordinary. I am curious, have you been approached by local authorities and been told this is the time you must leave the area as well. It sounds like most people evacuated the region, how about you guys . Absolutely, we spoke with the fire chief a while ago, hes very emotional about this, like authorities they take responsibility and they want people to leave and they are leaving as well. He did tell us, where are you going . And when you are getting out of here, you should not be here. Well, thats why we moved a little further from the bay front. We moved from the flooding, there are streets that are flooded up to my. Knees. We have a hotel and other crews are doing the same thing. We are not being hypocrite cal telling people toll leave and we are staying. We are warning people here. The fire chief, he followed him, we drove around and he confronted every Single Person that he ran into asking why are you still here, you need to leave, you cannot be here. In a couple of hours, he and his entire department will be leaving and there will be a convoy vehicle from the Fire Department in Saint Augustine will be leaving this city and other Law Enforcement will be doing the same thing thats a tough thing. Theyre trying to prevent loss of life. Lost of life cannot be repaired. I am going to ask you quickly, is it hard to stand up in this and how about the winds . It looks like it is picking up. Saluabsolutely. When i am close to the bay front, it is difficult to stand, yesterday when it was sunny outside, the wind was crazy. It is speaking up as i speak. Moving this far away from the front, i am able to standstill with this rain. It is kind of painful the rain coming through. If you can still hear me is that one thing that Saint Augustine has an issue of is Saint Augustine is the oldest city in our nation. That means there are the majority of the buildings in Saint Augustine have been here over 100 years. Thats why a lot of people are choosing to stay because they are so emotionally tied to their homes. Because it is so old, thats a major concern and a factor and lack therefo of. Excellent reporting there despite horrible conditions for you. Thank you very much, shelby. Lets go to cal perry, did you see that reporter . We can barely understand her, the rain was so loud. My goodness the girl is standing out there, just as i was asking her. She was talking about the boats. While you were talking, the winds take backup. About an hour ago, we went down to category three. You will see the winds picking backup along the coastline and these so called islands there was to twitter and facebook and youtube in 2005, alex, now, there are bouy in the ocean that tweets itself. The concern is that all of this coastline is at sea level. The entire coast and thats what had officials concerned. As we look at the models here of what kind of storm surge well be looking at. This is a category one storm. In the blue it is up to three feet. Category two of six feet of water and we are looking at Category Type storm surge. Thatll put you under water. These things are very wobbly and especially this storm and we are looking here next of georgia. Thats the story later today. It does not need to actually made land fall to push the water up. The category three storm are still dangerous and thats why officials want to keep 100 miles distance between people and the coastline in case this coastal flooding and it is possible that well see major storm surge from Hurricane Matthew. You talk about Cape Canaveral being under water. Even with a category three. It looks like it is going to pass over Cape Canaveral, you are looking at significant flooding. The Kennedy Space center is an island. Right. Under category three, you are looking at six to nine feet of water, thats enough to put it under water. Could you get a sense where the storm surge is the greatest right now and what areas of the most concerns. Right now, the area is jacksonville. This is a low line area and you will see this was the concern from officials. Jacksonville to the north. Right. Running up with georgia into South Carolina. This is flipped to category number one. Look at all this water. This is why governor in this case nick haley wanted to evacuate. It does not take much. You have so many rivers and especially when you are talking about South Carolina. Cal perry. Jacob soboroff, hes on the road and heading into the jacksonville area. Welcome to you, i dont know if you can see the broadcast there from your position. Cal was showing the amount of flood potential in jacksonville, the storm surge could be a huge problem that folks have to deal with. Reporter thats right, we are a couple of minutes from entering jacksonville. Over the course of the evening, we have been seeing sort of a steady and persistent downpour in the storm and frankly it is not here yet. The st. Johns river runs right through the middle of the jacksonville, well be driving over and seeing it and with the storm surge of six or nine or eleven feet. That could have potential catastrophic effect for an area like jacksonville. Not to mention outside of jacksonville and areas like mayport and out the coast, anything at sea level right there on the Atlantic Ocean with any storm surge what so ever, up here on the first coast, of florida where they have not seen storms like this in 18 years. I am looking at the windshields there and the good news is i have not seen anybody on the road and people have heated evacuations. Yes. Thats right, alice, coming in the opposite direction which is the direction that you want to see folks heading right now. There is cars coming out but it is very quiet on the roads which hopefully means that people have taken the evacuation orders from the mayor and the governor and gotten out of here well before 4 13 a. M. Jacob, how close are you on the road way to the actual coastline . So the city of jacksonville which we are pulling in right now, the downtown area, this is it. We are now approaching that and to get out to the Atlantic Ocean, probably another 20 or 30 minutes, in terms of miles. Thats the dry on sort of the cause way, i dont know what you would call it out here. The bridge would take you out over those water ways and mayport, alice, our team here is familiar with because we spent so much time covering the election here, early voting, thats one thing thats going on in the state of florida and think about how a weather system like this affects critically an important civic duty like that. Everybody else is worried about and thinking about, thats something being affect and the governor is not saying theyre not going to extend early voting past the deadline. The country of haiti were scheduled to have a long over new one year tardy president ial election. That has been cancelled. Thats the least of their worry right now. Jacob soboroff. Well check out where Hurricane Matthew is headed. Stay with us on msnbc. The first rule of being viking. Is that teamwork is impoant. Remember to do the little things. Help each other out. And the second rule of being a viking. Theres more than one way to win. Vikings war of clans play free now. At 18 past the hour, Hurricane Matthew is at a category three storm. They are bracing for winds up to 100 Miles Per Hour and more than 200,000 people have lost power statewide. John from the National Hurricane center is joining me. John, you have some great information. Where is matthew right now and whos feeling the brunt of the e effects of this storm. Matthew is not far from Florida East Coast. It is about 45 miles from melbourne and canaveral area. Looking at some of the observations, we are seeing gusts to Hurricane Force but most of the sustained winds is a Tropical Storm for us. I do think well get Hurricane Forced winds during the next few hours of the Cape Canaveral area. Do you have any idea of the kind of damage that sustained or tropical forced winds. Mostly Tropical Storms with gusts but we have not heard much of the damage, well know more about it during the daytime hours. We expect the damage was not too significant in those kwlareas lets talk about the storm surge and what could come from this with regards to Cape Canaveral is like its own island there. Yeah, storm surge is far a large with hurricanes and the most damaging. Theyre most likely seeing some of the most significant surge that theyre going to experience now and throughout the morning hours. I am sure well find out how bad it is going to be later on today. I can tell you that there are significant on shore winds pushing the water to the land and even if the strongest winds dont make their way to the Cape Canaveral area, you can imagine all of those winds pushing those water in those regions. It is about 45 miles off the coast, thats the eye of the hurricane right now. Where is the track . Right, the eye is about 45 miles off the coast and the track takes the system northwest ward. Now, given the shape of the florida coastline, that actually parallels the coastline. It does not bring the eye in land. So it is bringing the western edge of the eye wall along Florida East Coast from where it is now near melbourne and all the way to jacksonville throughout the day today. We dont think that the system is actually going to make land fall any longer. We do think that western eye wall is still an vary of very strong winds. A lot of power outages. We mentioned a couple hundred thousands in the area alone. Georgia where they lost power. Will georgia be feeling the effects of winds at this point . Yeah, theyll to. Theyll track along florida coast. So matthew is just going to have a history florida coast and South Carolina coast through the weekend. Yeah, look john, you guys can do your best with predicting things, is it possible that matthew will veer perhaps in land and then cause more damage even what you guys are predicting. Absolutely possible. One of this things we know about this hurricane is they wobble. If anyone watches radar animation of these systems, they do not move in straight line, they wobble left and right and given the system is only center, 40 Miles Per Hour offshore, it will bring it much closer to making land fall. So the projections for the date today, where are you most foesed in the Daylight Hours and what areas are hit the hardest . We are more focused of the central area of the state of florida of the Cape Canaveral area and vijacksonville. Thats the time line of whos going to receive the Significant Impact john, this thing is going to be around for quite some time. If you are looking at georgia, that does that mean georgia feeling the effect of matthew and hitting directly, thatll not happen until saturday . Yeah, friday night and not until saturday for South Carolina and this is around for a couple of days. We dont think the system is going to weaken that much. It is going to be a significant hurricane for the next couple of days riding the u. S. East coastline. All right, i got to ask you, when we look at these projected several days out paths of matthew. John, it looks like this thing could double back and make a circle out there in the atlantic and come back towards florida, is that possible and were that to happen, could it be this strong when it came back to florida . The first question, is it possib possible . Yes. What we are expecting of the trough pointing north is no longer look k like it ing leek going perhaps, florida by the middle of next week. The good news is we do see a significant amount of wind sheer that should disrupt the system by then, even though we are confident that the track may do that, we do think it is in a much weaken state by the time it ends back in the bahamas. As i introduce yod you, john you brought us great information. John, thank you very much. We have been talking about Daytona Beach. Well get a report after a short break here at msnbc. Xwxexe the first rule of being a viking. Is that teamwork is important. Remember to do the little things. Lp each other out. And the seco re of being a viking. Theres more than one way to win. Vikings war of clans play free now. We are approaching 4 30 a. M. Eastern. We are going to go now to Daytona Beach, thats where ron mott has been standing by for us, good morning, whats the situation like for you. Reporter good morning, we have enduring one band after another of nasty weather and the worse is yet to come. We did get good news of the 11 00 eastern time update last night of the eye pushed a little further east once it gets to the Daytona Beach area. Thats good news. We wont see the strongest winds around the circulation of matthew and the wind are strong where we are upward 90s and 100 Miles Per Hour sustained for a couple of hours at least. The bad news is the eye is going to be a beam at Daytona Beach right around 12 45 p. M. This afternoon. Thats the biggest threat for any storm surge or flood to occur. So thats the hour that we are going to be most alert here in the Daytona Beach area. The forecast at this hour is for upwards of 11 feet of a storm surge and thatll put water into some of the homes and businesses along atlantic avenue which runs along north south here and a block off the beach and in land about a mile or so which runs the link to florida and a lot of real estate there and a lot of expensive real estate so folks who are hunkering down there might anticipate getting water in their home if they have not sandbag their homes. Officials are telling folks, just because the eye passes, it does not mean the storm is over. It is a large system. We do anticipate that there will be hurricane for us and tropical forced winds thatll blow around this area for hours after the eye has pass and possibly late into tonight or maybe into saturday morning. One last thing and a lot of folks are not thinking about this for a good reason because it is a long way off. The first part of next week, this storm could reloop around the ocean right off of florida, reenergyize and come back and hit some of the same communities thats hitting today. Thatll be cruel just as the time when folks are trying to get power back on. Lets send it back to you. Thank you very much, ron mott. Edward, welcome to you and lets talk about whats it is like outside the building where you are. Reporter good morning, yeah, we are in the middle of the storm right now. We had to pull off the street and waiting for it to pass and riding it out now at the police station, taking a break and eager to get back out as soon as the wind dies down. It makes you worry for neighbor did not evacuate or heating the order of the governor to stay put. Do you have concerns of residents there that have no t evacuated and maybe in harms way still. We have been talking for days and trying to get people to realize that this is serious and get off of our Barrier Islands along the coast here for the exact reason. Once it gets bad out here, we cannot get them to help it out. That was really important. Unfortunately, everybody does not. We hope they make it through okay but there is nothing we could do for them. Right, so ed, talking about the rain flooding and winds and whats the major concern there in the fort pearce area right now . A combination of both, excuse me. The wind is falling pretty heavily right now. We do have a lot of water front. There is always a concern and anybody along the area. The waves are coming up over the seawall this evening. Thats our big concern there. There will be some Flooding Issues to deal with this fort pearce if you have seen the waves coming up on the seawalls. What about project tile . Are you seeing any damage, ed . Everybody is pulled in and it is kind of hard to see right now because we are not out there to see it personally. I am going to ask you to standby there in fort pearce. We got our jay gray, shes in Daytona Beach. Welcome, i understand it is not supposed to be at its peek there for another couple three hours, it looks pretty bad already. Alex, it is been intensifying through the early morning. Take a look at the realtime conditions right now. The winds have been howling and the rain is coming down that everybody is talking about continuing to build there and pouring over the beach at this point. Still power here which is amazing when you consider how strong this wind has been. Alex, it is going to get worse k according to fraorecasters. This thing is continuing to move up the coastline and there is that chance that continues. It could loop around weaker but still bringing problems here again early next week. It is been a rough go, going to continue rough for the next 24 or 48 hours. Thank you very much. Lets go back to ed cunningham. A lt what point would you gae it is safe for them to get back out there and continue to patrol . Well, we are 45 miles an hour. Some where around 10 00 p. M. Last night, we had to pull our officers off the street as the winds got over 45 Miles Per Hour. We got them right back out right away ed cunningham, best of luck going about your job and all of you staying safe. Thank you for what you do. Thank you. Lets go to our reporter, shelby danielson. We spoke to you the last hour, we could barely hear you because winds are blowing at you and how are things right now . Reporter well, the rain has slowed down a little bit. The rain when we were talking earlier, it feels like hail against your body. Of course, it is not hailing but thats just how powerful the wind is, slowing down a little bit right now. I can tell you that there is still some cars driving out here, i have seen police cars and normal vehicles and kind of getting back to that point that this is under a mandatory evacuation at 6 00 a. M. Yesterday. That does not mean everyone left. Unfortunately, some people are sticking around and you can hear me earlier when we said this. Well see a convoy of Fire Department vehicles from saint augusti augustine. They are leveriaving after warn everyone to get out of here. We just spoke to somebody in fort pearce department, all of p patrols had to be evacuated. There are a lot of Historic Structures there. Have they been proved for hurricane and concerns of damaged structures . Reporter you know, not necessarily. You would hope so, radight . Because on the bay front here, the water is right behind us and all the buildings is right here. I was speaking a clerk yesterday morning and she was telling me that theyre not boarding up their windows or putting tape on their windows. She does not believe that the windows are storm proof for hurricane. A lot of structures here are very old and Saint Augustine was founded 451 years ago and the buildings here are over 100 years old. Thats why there is such an emotional tie here because a lot of people have lived in these homes for that long. And i spoke to the mayor of Saint Augustine. She said Saint Augustine is resilience. It is so resilience and they have so much love for this great city. But, in situations like this, it is almost like theyre holding on so much and lets hope and pray that the structures as old as they are do not give into the impact that we are going to feel from Hurricane Matthew pretty soon. Shelby, in terms of storm surge, what have you seen and how much worse can it get there in Saint Augustine . Say that one more time no, i totally get it. Storm surge, how bad as it been thus far and is it expected to get worse . Reporter okay. Absolutely expected to get worse. The storm surge are saying right now at least 9 feet and getting up to 12 feet here. A lot of people are saying you are over reacting and when the fire chief told us i dont have one of the poles right now. There was a pole about 10 feet high and he was expecting the worst case snare joe cenariosce were we are not over reacting. Storm surges is really the most dangerous thing thats facing Saint Augustine right now. There is so many old structures and so close of where those storm surges will be. Six to nine feet is what they are expecting, up to 12 feet and as we are talking earlier, the Saint Augustine marina is just half a mile away from me and there are still several large boats around that area where those storm surges will be happening. Lets just hope that those boats will stay tied down. Shelby danielson. Thank you for your report this hour. Stay safe. Well check with Bonnie Snyder tracking where Hurricane Matthew is now and where is it heading next. I am msnbcs meteorologist, Bonnie Snyder, the storm center is staying on shore. 11. 2 million americans are under a hurricane warning right now. We are looking at tough numbers to deal with. Category three storm is located 45 miles to the east of melbourne florida. The movement to the northwest at 14. Lets take a look at the track and watch as it comes so close to the coastline, not just florida but georgia and South Carolina as well. Still close enough that it could cause big problems in terms of storm surge. While we are looking at storm serge, fo surge of four to six feet possible. Seven to eleven feet and all the way here to the northern beaches of florida. That water could pile in. You can see how it is geographically set up. The set up to occur and the angle which the storm is coming in as it moves to the northwest and piling that water, unfortunately in the area. Definitely, you can see why we had the evacuations. For the coast, four the six feet. Thats the big concern of Hurricane Matthew, well continue our coverage of this major hurricane, coming up. Welcome back everyone, high winds and heavy rain right now in caribbean. You can see that storm has come and gone leaving widespread d devastation in its wake. Winds in haiti peeked at 125 Miles Per Hour. It is a seen of devastation in many part of that country. What are you seeing and hearing there at cocoa beach. I am at the fire station. Inside, i am relatively comfortable. Looking out, the past majority of the city has not lost power and you see lights or whatnot. We basically have steady wind about 50 to 60 Miles Per Hour with gusts probably exceeding 70 or 80 and quite a bit of rain right now. I understand looking at some radar and i see it is toobt hit us. Thats going to be i am sure it is 70 Miles Per Hour for the extended period of time. Thats what we have been expecting now for the last forecast, for the last eight to ten hours anyway suggested that well get Hurricane Forced winds starting from 4 00 this morning until 10 00 and it is going to get pretty intense. The worse part is you got to come. I got to tell you, when you are anticipating this and via radar is just poupon you. What is your concern of cocoa beach, you are really worried about storm surge . Alex, my biggest concern is we did not get enough people evacuated. Really . Yes. Dont get me wrong t majority of the folks did. We still have literally thousands of people here decided not the leave and you know, we have been explaining to them all along. Once a wind retaches a certain point, we cannot get to their homes and they are basically on their own. It is unacceptable and i would not stay in that type of situation but we have people just feel for whatever reason that they had to stay. That puts them at harm and it is hard to sit here and watch. Like i said, we are comfortable watching this and suns not up yet. Once it is, well have a better analysis of the situation. Basically, right now we can only see a block or two away. You guys sit there protected and a year and a half from the fire station. I was speaking to a colleague of yours, they are sharing the same concern that you are saying now. They had to be off the streets since 10 00 p. M. Because of the wind jugusts and the rain as of course. They are not there yet and the storm past fort pearce. You guys are maybe sometimes before you can get Emergency Responders out there to go look and those who stayed behind needs help. That got to be frustrating. Yes, it is alex. The last report, we are expecting not until at least 4 00 this afternoon before we could get out. Wow. And, you know, it is a way you see it at this point. There is nothing anyone here could do except waiting it out and way. Mayor tim tumulty is waiting things out. It sounds like there are those who have not evacuated. Best of luck and assess damage there later. Lets bring in mory goodman right now. Welcome. You talked about the enormous efforts that fema had to under take and it is mind blowing. You are talking about meals for a million and where do you begin to prepare for that, how long have you been preparing for this particular storm matthew . Fema has been leaning toward this is. It is been a week where they were planning and they had what f a million of meals and thousands of blankets and cots. They have officers that are with the states and their Emergency Operation centers. Like the mayor said, you are going to have to wait and see, the fema disaster personnel and the state is as and locals are to have to wait and see also. Theyre getting reports from where ever they can and there is not a lot of people reporting from the area unless of what we are seeing on msnbc and and the good reporting. First light tomorrow morning, theyll be doing Damage Assessment of states and locals and fema is going to be with them. I am sure well find seriously flooded area and some people may have a flooded home to go back to and it will be nasty and they may have temporary housing for some time. We may see a disaster declaration tomorrow which will unleash all of the federal assets to help individuals and public assistance for the cities and counties that are affected too. Tomorrow is going to be in just a couple of hours, as soon as the sun comes up, we are going to know so much more than we do now but fema has been forward leaning tch leaning. The director of fema, the form director of florida management, hes a class act and he knows what hes doing and hes been in the trenches. Fema from the federal perspective, people are in good hands. Well, i will add you mory, thank you for your time. Can i add quickly. People can download our app and etcetera, download it it in english and spanish. Always the director of communication there. I am alex wood, i will be back at the top, i will be joined by betty nguyen as we take over on morning joe. Stay with us after this break. Mary buys a little lamb. One of millions of orders on this companys servers. Accessible by thousands of suppliers and employees globally. But withyberhreats on the rise, mary data could be under attack. With the help at t, and serity that senses and mitigates cyber threats, eir Critical Data safer than ever. Giving them the agility to be open secure. Because no one knows ike at t. Daylight is expected to bring a scene of heavy damage this morning as Hurricane Matthew begins to batter parts of the southern atlantic coast. The storm has weakened to a category 3 overnight, but at its peak, packed winds of 130 miles an hour as it approached florida, georgia, and the carolinas. Its the most powerful storm in over a decade after killing well over 100 people and by some accounts at least 300 across the caribbean. Whipping winds, torrential rain, and a vicious storm surge had governors and Law Enforcement, the white house, and our friends at the Weather Channel warning of the worst. If you need to evacuate and you havent, evacuate. The storm will kill you. Time is running out. Storm surges are going to go much further inland than people