Matthew hammers Hilton Head, still could make landfall in northern Beaufort County

The worst is yet to come for Beaufort County, as Matthew’s center moves close to Hilton Head Island this morning, according the National Weather Service.

At 4:30 a.m. Matthew’s eyewall was edging close to Hilton Head’s coastline, roughly 5 to 10 miles offshore, with maximum sustained winds at 105 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Matthew remains a Category 2 hurricane.

The powerful storm system has showed no remorse for Beaufort County, as it began to sweep through around high tide with torrential rain and  life-threatening winds

“We’ll be seeing the strongest winds of this storm right now through the next few hours,” Carl Barnes, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Charleston said at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. “The worst is far from over.”

Beaufort County has seen wind gusts as high as 83 mph, Barnes said, but those speeds are expected to get higher as the storm continues to hammer Beaufort County.

Barnes said the National Weather Service reports rainfall amounts at Folly Field Beach on Hilton Head Island were at 9.8 inches around 12:30 a.m. Friday.

“We expect parts of Beaufort County to get a total of 15 inches of rain in total from this storm,’ Barnes said. “We’re concerned about widespread damage from storm surge and flash flooding for the next day.”

Matthew still could make landfall in northern Beaufort County, Barnes said.

“There’s still a possibility of it hitting land on Hunting, Pritchard, or Fripp Island,” he said.

Conditions will start to improve by mid morning to the afternoon, Barnes said.

“We should start to see better conditions and enter the recovery phase tomorrow,” he said.

What has Matthew already done?

Earlier this week, the storm battered the Bahamas and had claimed at least 300 lives — and likely many more — in the Caribbean as of Friday afternoon.

Forecasters from the National Weather Service warned Friday that the storm’s damage could make some areas of upper Florida uninhabitable for weeks or even months.

Flooding has been reported in the Bluffton Park neighborhood by residents who did not evacuate, with roadway water in the area rising past their knees.

Water was seeping under doors and leaking from the ceiling at a shelter in Ridgeland Friday night, forcing shelter workers to move some evacuees from a particularly wet wing of the school.

Just after midnight Saturday morning Beaufort County Emergency Management Director Lt. Col. Neil Baxley said there are about 15,000 power outages in Beaufort County.

Almost 700,000 Floridians are without power as of Friday evening, Florida Power & Light reported.

A 58-year-old woman died from a heart attack Friday morning, the Vero Beach Press Journal reported. Because the storm prevented the fire district from responding, the death is considered storm-related.

Hugo, the last major hurricane to pummel the Palmetto State, resulted in 35 deaths in South Carolina and an estimated $5.9 billion in property damage. Gov. Haley said Matthew’s damage could top the 1989 disaster.

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This story was originally published October 7, 2016 at 7:58 AM with the headline "Matthew hammers Hilton Head, still could make landfall in northern Beaufort County."