Hurricane Matthew: the latest news, updates, forecast, projected path and more

On Thursday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott told coastal Floridians that Hurricane Matthew was "going to kill people" when it came to the Sunshine State. By 8 a.m. on Friday, Matthew's eye wall — the area around the storm's eye — was "hugging the coast of central Florida" with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, according to a bulletin from the National Hurricane Center. 

As of 8 a.m., Matthew was 35 miles north-northeast of Cape Canaveral and moving north-northwest at a rate of 13 miles per hour.

As of this morning, Matthew's death toll has risen to more than 300, according to the BBC. Other estimates are even higher, at 478.

Matthew has now been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. But that didn't stop it from blowing 107 mph winds over Cape Canaveral, according to the Weather Channel, and inciting a rare extreme wind warning as the storm continues to pummel Florida.

There are currently hurricane warnings for parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, according to the NHC bulletin. Matthew's center could be over the Florida peninsula Friday night, and potentially over Georgia and South Carolina on Saturday.  

At least two major American establishments have shut down in light of the incoming storm: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (home of the Apollo missions) and the happiest place on Earth, Disney World, which has only shut down four times in its history.

"NHC staff urges you to evacuate if told to do so by emergency managers," the NHC's Atlantic Ops team wrote on Twitter. "#Matthew remains a dangerous #hurricane."