CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Officials say people who refused to evacuate from central Florida's Atlantic coast are calling for help now as Hurricane Matthew's western eyewall brushes past Cape Canaveral.
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Brevard County Emergency Operations spokesman David Waters said early Friday that more than 100,000 people in the area had lost power.
Mandatory evacuation orders had been issued for 90,000 people living on barrier islands and in mobile homes and low-lying areas. Waters says some residents who refused to leave now find themselves cut off as they face the worst of the hurricane.
He says a family called in that the roof "just flew off their home on Merritt Island."
Waters says people will just have to stay put for now and do the best they can until conditions improve and paramedics and firefighters can be dispatched to help them. He spoke by phone from the county's emergency operations center, which was running a backup generator because it had lost electricity.
Along with the power outages, the water supply to the barrier islands was cut off to avoid compounding the storm flooding if the system got damaged.
Waters says he has talked to other families who have said things like, "We're scared. We wish we hadn't stayed."
People who refused to evacuate are calling for help, but first responders can't safely get to them: https://t.co/NUst1hx6qA pic.twitter.com/UyVKGwlXfl
— WESH 2 News (@WESH) October 7, 2016
Wow! #HurricaneMatthew damage from the Suntree area in Brevard County.
Full coverage: https://t.co/R4Ty2ytBEg pic.twitter.com/5vTaCuhRj6— WESH 2 News (@WESH) October 7, 2016
