[NautiNurse]

The Hurricane Warning has been extended northward to Altamaha Sound,
Georgia, and the Hurricane Watch has been extended northward to
South Santee River, South Carolina.

...Reconnaissance aircraft finds Matthew strengthening near
the northwestern Bahamas...

Summary of 500 am EDT...0900 UTC...information
----------------------------------------------
about 60 mi SSE of Nassau
about 255 mi SE of West Palm Beach Florida
Max sustained winds...125 mph
Moving...NW at 12 mph...
Pressure...944 mb

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 160 miles.

On/Off Hurricane List Mash Here-->

[MD Expat in PA]

Strengthening as predicted. Pressure (now 944) dropped quite a bit overnight. 125 mph sustained with gusts at 155 mph. Very close to getting back to Cat 4. Not good.

[ZinGirl]

Thank you for this thread once again, NN.

Jim Cantore now reporting live from across the street of my FIL. He and his lady friend have so far decided to ignore mandatory evacuation saying, "we're fine!" Hopefully they change their mind and leave today. If he begrudgingly does evacuate and Matthew decides to head out to sea, I'm fine with listening to my father-in-law say, "I told you so" every day for the rest of my life.

[rodguy911]

We really have dodged a bullet so far with this storm in the Islamorada area. Key Largo and upper key largo ocean reef remains to be seen. The angle of approach of Matthew to the keys pretty much took us out of much of the action although today we will get 25-30 knots and gusty out of the NE switching to 25 knots out of the west tomorrow dropping to 15 knots by tomorrow night accd. to the NDBC buoy at Mollasses Reef Light off Key Largo.

Meanwhile in Key West everyone is there.

The entire Bahamas fleet is docked there as a safe haven as is every cruise ship in the area,the Coast guard and Navy. The Outer Mole and Key West Harbor is packed with ships.My daughter does cruise ship tours and is up on all this.