(WESH-TV) 2 News at 4pm - Hurricane Matthew Open (October 4, 2016)

WESH 2 News at 4pm (NBC Orlando) on Hurricane Matthew from October 4, 2016. ===Transcript=== meredith: right now on wesh 2 news first at 4:00, pounding rains and whipping winds, severe weather signaling the arrival of hurricane matthew. the category four storm slammed into haiti today, but is now moving north toward cuba, and possibly florida. good afternoon. i'm meredith mcdonough. summer: i'm summer knowles. thank you for joining us. this is a storm we've been keeping a close eye on for days. let's take a look at live satellite imagery. you can see exactly how massive this storm is fellow packing 140 mile per hour wind and impacting multiple islands in the caribbean. it has already caused multiple deaths. meredith: we are on show watching live in -- also watching live in jacksonville where gov. rick scott is giving a briefing on the storm and we will carry his comments live when that happens. let's start with first alert chief meteorologist tony mainolfi. what are we looking at with matthew? tony: after the 2:00 intermediate advisory, took at the wind, 145 miles per hour, category four. it went over some of the high terrain and did not really weaken it, on a path to central florida late thursday into friday. we will have to watch the coastline. up and down the eastern side of the peninsula all the way down toward miami, hurricane watches. look at the eye reforming, about to go right over the land of cuba. we will have to wait and see but that interaction does. the models today. let's talk about these. we are going to stop the clock. there is one pretty far offshore and the other one is coming very close to shore, if not on shore. the late afternoon european models making a landfall right there in brevard county. again, that is a bit get disconcerting and we will have to watch that carefully. the worst-case scenario, the best case scenario. what this means county by county, coming up in a couple of minutes. meredith: thank you. gov. rick scott holding this press conference. let's listen in. governor scott: protecting life is our number one concern. if matthew directly impacts athletic, there will be massive destruction that we have not seen in years. if hurricanell s massive destruction. this is a deadly storm approaching our state. i cannot stress that enough. it might look like it is still off the coast and is going to go off of the coast, but think about it, it is very difficult to project exactly where the hurricanes are going to go, it is difficult to project the size of the hurricanes. yesterday, i issued an executive order the koetter a state of emergency for every florida county due to the severity and magnitude of the storm. every storm -- every county has been included to ensure resources for evacuation, sheltering and other essential needs. we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best and we not going to take any chances. i was briefed thoroughly by the hurricane center and spoke with all 67 counties and have been in contact with sheriffs, mayors and emergency management officials across the state. here is what we know now. hurricane matthew made landfall this morning as a category four hurricane in haiti. matthew is expected to hit the bahamas, late tonight, early tomorrow morning. the hurricane will not have a lot of land to interact with the fourth us a chance to hit florida, which means we have to prepare for a major hurricane to hit our state. we cannot expect anything less than a category four hurricane. matthew is a very slow-moving storm. it is continuing to move north-northwest, the maximum wind speed of 145 miles per hour in wind gusts higher than that. we should not focus on the track, the projected track right now, we should focus on where it might go. the storm will be close to our state and a small deviation from the track could mean a catastrophic change a long before the coast. -- florida coast. we have to prepare for a direct hit a long before the coast. the likely see state within the next 24 to 36 hours. having a plan in place could determine whether you live or die. we expect to see impacts on for's coast beginning wednesday and go into the weekend.