Hurricane Matthew was just offshore Florida's Space Coast Friday morning, downgraded to a Category 3 storm — still close and powerful enough to cause severe damage from wind and water to the Florida coast.
As of 11 a.m. of Friday, a hurricane warning remained in effect from Cocoa Beach to Surf City in North Carolina. The area from Sebastian Inlet to Cocoa Beach has been downgraded to tropical storm warning.
The advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) discontinued the tropical storm warning south of Sebastian Inlet, which means that Palm Beach County, Broward County, Miami-Dade County and Monroe County are now in the clear.
"Tropical storm force winds are quite capable of knocking trees and power lines down," said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center, warning people along the coast to remain vigilant in the wake of the large storm.
Tens of thousands of people in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties lost power Thursday but Miami-Dade and Broward escaped the most severe effects of the storm when it moved to the north Thursday afternoon as it traveled from the Bahamas toward the Florida mainland.
FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said the utility had a "veritable army" of workers ready to restore power as the sun rose Friday. Public facilities like police and fire stations and hospitals were high on the priority list, but generally the utility aims to "restore power to the greatest number of customers in the shortest period of time," he said.
FPL has significantly invested in "hardening" its equipment since Hurricane Wilma in 2005 but "make no mistake about it, no energy grid is storm-proof," McGrath said.
At dawn Friday morning, maintenance workers at Broward County's Emergency Operations Center in Plantation turned a key to open the building's hurricane shutters.
"The bunker is open! The storm has passed," they said. "Let there be air."
Despite stern warnings from Gov. Rick Scott, emergency managers and forecasters, some people in Palm Beach County were still out and about Thursday as Matthew approached.
"I wanted to come and check it out," said Ingrid Bonilla, in Lake Worth. "I wanted to see the beach before the bad weather comes. I want to come back after the storm and see how it's going to look like — a before and after picture of it."
Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the warning area Friday morning and continue throughout the day as Matthew slowly moves north along the coast, toward Georgia and South Carolina.
Early next week, forecasters say Matthew could turn east, then south — possibly looping back toward the Bahamas and Florida.
