FLORIDA, United States (AP) — People boarded up beach homes, schools closed and officials ordered large-scale evacuations along the East Coast yesterday as Hurricane Matthew tore through the Bahamas and took aim at Florida, where the governor warned the state could be facing its “biggest evacuation ever”.

Governor Rick Scott said he didn’t know how many people would be ordered to leave the coastline because it is left up to individual counties. So far, only Brevard and Martin counties have issued mandatory evacuation orders.

“When you look at this storm as it goes along the East Coast, we’re going to have to prepare every county, so it could be the biggest evacuation ever. Every county is focused on it though. We’ve been working on it even before today,” Scott said.

Matthew was a dangerous and life-threatening category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 mph yesterday, and it was expected to be very near Florida’s Atlantic coast by this evening. It could become the first major hurricane to blow ashore in the US since Wilma slashed across Florida in 2005.

At least 11 deaths in the Caribbean have been blamed on the storm.

In South Carolina, traffic was bumper-to-bumper as people fled on Interstate 26, the main artery out of Charleston. Gasoline was hard to come by, with at least half a dozen stations along the coast out of fuel and long lines at others.

Storm shutters were closed on a number of palatial homes overlooking Charleston’s Civil War-era Battery along the water. Carriage tours made their way down streets that were largely empty of traffic.

In Florida, theme parks such as Walt Disney World watched the storm closely and Sea World told customers to anticipate altered hours.

“If you’re able to go early, leave now,” Scott urged.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew — at one point a fierce category 5 — will remain a powerful storm at least through tonight as it nears Florida. The Hurricane Center said fluctuation in intensity was expected as the storm crawls up the East Coast.

Forecasters said there was a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation along Florida’s east coast, much of which was under a hurricane watch or warning.

“When a hurricane is forecast to take a track roughly parallel to a coastline, as Matthew is forecast to do from Florida through South Carolina, it becomes very difficult to specify impacts at any one location,” said senior hurricane specialist Lixion Avila.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the federal government’s preparation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) headquarters in Washington.

“If you get an evacuation order, just remember that you can always rebuild, you can always repair property, we cannot restore a life if it is lost,” Obama said.

FEMA deployed personnel to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, where states of emergency have been declared. The agency is also positioning commodities and other supplies at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and in Albany, Georgia.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced plans starting yesterday afternoon to evacuate a quarter million people — not including tourists — from the coast.

Haley said 315 buses were dispatched to two major coastal counties to help with evacuations. The National Guard and other law enforcement agents are mobilised, ready to ensure an orderly evacuation.

“We ask everybody to please be safe,” Haley said, warning those thinking of staying put that they could be risking the life of a law enforcement officer if they had to be rescued later.

Government officials are worried about complacency, especially in South Florida, which hasn’t seen a major hurricane — a category 3 or higher — in 11 years.