Florida Gov. Warns ‘This Storm Will Kill You’ FROM USA.COM

More than 100 have been killed by Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean.

A man walks near the Cocoa Beach Pier as Hurricane Matthew approaches Thursday in Cocoa Beach, Florida. (MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES)

More than 2 million people have been urged to evacuate coastal South Carolina, Georgia and Florida as of Thursday morning, as Florida's governor matter-of-factly warned, "this storm will kill you."

More than 100 people have died in the Caribbean as a result of the massive storm. While it briefly was down-graded to a Category 3 storm, the National Hurricane Center said late Thursday morning that it had again reached the Category 4 level.

"Do not surf. Do not go on the beach. This will kill you," Gov. Rick Scott said at a press conference Thursday. "There is no reason not to leave."

"Millions will lose power, possibly for a long period of time," Scott said. "Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate."

[READ: South Carolina Urges 1.1 Million to Evacuate Ahead of Hurricane Matthew]

Meteorologist Bill Karins of NBC said Thursday he was "confident saying this is going to be a major hurricane in the history of Florida." Tropical storm conditions are expected to develop in Florida for the first time Thursday. States of emergency were declared in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida earlier this week.

The Caribbean has already been ravaged by the storm's wake, with the storm heading to the the Bahamas Thursday morning. The storm made landfall Tuesday in Haiti as a Category 4. At least 28 people died from Matthew in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said.

Mourad Wahba, the U.N. secretary-general's deputy special representative for Haiti, described Matthew as the "largest humanitarian event" in Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 according to Oxfam International, though exact casualty figures still vary.

President Barack Obama addressed the imminent U.S. landfall of Hurricane Matthew Wednesday, in remarks at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington. Obama was briefed by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and said, "I want to emphasize to the public: This is a serious storm."

Updated on Oct. 6, 2016: This story was updated as new information became available.

Original : http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-10-06/hurricane-matthew-causes-massive-evacuation-2-million-urged-to-head-away-from-coast