Even though state and local leaders have been pleading for residents to evacuate, there are some who plan on sticking out Hurricane Matthew at home.
Hurricane Matthew pelted Florida with heavy rains as the deadly storm steamed ever closer to the coast with potentially catastrophic winds of 130 mph Thursday. Two million people across the Southeast were warned to flee inland.
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Florida alone accounted for about 1.5 million of those told to clear out.
"This storm's a monster," Gov. Rick Scott warned as it started lashing the state with periodic heavy rains and squalls around nightfall. He added: "I'm going to pray for everybody's safety."
But there were residents in areas ordered to evacuate -- from Amelia Island in Nassau County to Vilano Beach in St. Johns County -- who refused to do just that.
"We are just, you know, bunkering down and we have a lot of friends that are still here on the island and push comes to shove, we do have a place that we could go if we are able to drive," said Allyson Swart, who plans on staying on Amelia Island.
In the Jacksonville's Julington Creek neighborhood, many decided not to evacuate despite pleas from Mayor Lenny Curry to leave to low-lying area.
"We've talked to most of our friends, and I'll be honest with you, probably 90 percent of our friends are waiting it out. A police officer lives next to us and he evacuated. But for the most part, my neighborhood is staying put," said Brad and Heather Pounds.
Dawn Young also planned on staying in her Ponte Vedra Beach home.
"I have a niece who lives off Atlantic Boulevard across the intracoastal. She is begging me to come in. I said, 'I'm not going to be stupid. If it's still a Category 4 in the morning, I'll come in.' We have places to go, I don't feel worried about that but we love our little beach home. It's our home and for weather to run us away? Forget it. I mean I'm not going to die from this because I will leave in the morning if I have to," Young said.
But Friday morning may be too late.
As weather conditions deteriorate, and daylight diminishes, windows of opportunity to evacuate safely lessen, Duval County emergency officials just after midnight.
Inland waterways including St. Johns River and creeks are expected to have sustained winds between 70-90 mph. Storm surge on the St. Johns will be between 6-10 feet. Standing water as high as 6 feet is expected to persist for days following the storm.
Even as conditions started to get worst in St. Simons Island, Georgia, many said the weather wasn't bad enough for them to leave.
"I've seen it before. I've evacuated before. And, I think it's going to follow the same pattern as Floyd. I've left out nervousness and now I've got to keep an eye on a lot of animals and some elderly people, and that's what I'm doing," said John Bostick, who has lived in St. Simons for 40 years.
Matthew was the most powerful storm to threaten the U.S. Atlantic coast in more than a decade, and had already left more than 280 dead in its wake across the Caribbean.
The hurricane was expected to blow ashore - or come dangerously close to doing so - early Friday north of Palm Beach County, which has about 1.4 million people, and then slowly push north for the next 12 hours along the Interstate 95 corridor, through Cape Canaveral and Jacksonville, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters said it would then probably hug the coast of Georgia and South Carolina over the weekend before veering out to sea - perhaps even looping back toward Florida in the middle of next week as a tropical storm.
Millions of people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were told to evacuate their homes, and interstate highways were turned into one-way routes to speed the exodus.
"The storm has already killed people. We should expect the same impact in Florida," the governor warned.
The hurricane picked up wind speed as it closed in, growing from a possibly devastating Category 3 storm to a potentially catastrophic Category 4. Forecasters said it could dump up to 15 inches of rain in some spots and cause a storm surge of 9 feet or more.
They said the major threat to the Southeast would not be the winds - which newer buildings can withstand - but the massive surge of seawater that could wash over coastal communities along a 500-mile stretch from South Florida to the Charleston, South Carolina, area.
The last Category 3 storm or higher to hit the U.S. was Wilma in October 2005. It sliced across Florida with 120 mph winds, killing five people and causing an estimated $21 billion in damage.