SAVANNAH, Ga. — Hurricane Matthew is expected to hit the Georgia coast on Friday, possibly as a Category 3 storm.
People are already loading up on buses along the coast. There is a mandatory evacuation order in six coastal Georgia counties, which includes the city of Savannah.%
%
Gov. Nathan Deal spoke in Savannah Thursday evening, urging Georgians living along the coast to head inland immediately.
Some of those evacuees are now on their way to Atlanta.
"This is a serious matter," Deal said.
The warning is clear from Deal: Get out of the way of Hurricane Matthew.
"As you know, we have declared a state of emergency. We are trying to be as cautious as possible, but we want everyone to understand that this is a very serious situation which is developing," Deal said.
RELATED STORIES:
- Hurricane Matthew: How to help
- Evacuation zone maps, emergency links for Hurricane Matthew
- Hurricane Matthew: 9 things to do for your family's hurricane plan
- LSU at Florida game postponed as Hurricane Matthew nears
Students from the Savannah College of Art and Design loaded up buses Thursday to head to the SCAD campus in Atlanta.
"Yeah, the whole school. It's pretty nice how they accommodate us, taking us away to Atlanta," SCAD student Andy Cao told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot.
Hundreds of other evacuees from Savannah boarded buses provided by the American Red Cross and the Department of Transportation.%
%
They're headed for Augusta.
"I just pray that everybody is safe, you know, hopefully everybody get out of here, get to Augusta," evacuee David Rogers said.
"I don't have any family here and I've never been in this before. We're from Washington state so we're just going with the flow," evacuee Kymethia Williams said.
Inside the emergency operations center in Savannah, it's a round-the-clock operation, monitoring the strength and path of the storm.
"Definitely take this thing seriously. It is a big storm. It's forecasted at this time to be a Category 3 when it gets off the coast here,” City of Savannah Emergency Management Director David Donnelly told Elliot.
"Very nervous. I'm very, very afraid," Williams said.
Emergency officials in Savannah are most concerned about strong winds, dangerous storm surges and more than a foot of rain.
Cox Media Group
