Hurricane Matthew Could Hit Florida Twice

Hurricane Matthew is an unusual storm and authorities in Florida fear it could take a very unusual path: Skimming the state's east coast before veering east, doing a U-turn, and swinging back to hit Florida again. Forecasters say only a few models show this path, but all prediction tracks based on the storm's current path show Matthew hitting Florida late Thursday or early Friday, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Gov. Rick Scott has warned that a direct hit from the hurricane could cause "massive destruction that we haven't seen in years." Almost 2 million people along the coast have been urged to evacuate their homes.

"We are preparing for the worst, we are hoping for the best, and we're not taking any chances," Scott said as thousands of people in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina headed inland to avoid the storm, NBC News reports. The eye of the hurricane approached the Bahamas Wednesday night and authorities warn that it could strengthen to a Category 4 storm again before hitting Florida, making it the strongest to hit the US in more than a decade, reports the AP. In Haiti, where Matthew made landfall Tuesday, the extent of the devastation in the country's southwest corner is still unclear, but authorities say that at least 10 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed. (More Hurricane Matthew stories.)