Thousands of Americans head inland to escape Hurricane Matthew

Hundreds of thousands of Americans headed for higher ground Wednesday as Hurricane Matthew barreled toward the Florida and South Carolina coasts and the death toll from the monster storm climbed to at least 25.

Evacuations were underway in Florida after Matthew, which hammered Haiti and strafed Cuba, began battering the Bahamas.

Related: Haiti Cleans Up From Deadly Hurricane Matthew as Storm Eyes Bahamas

"We are preparing for the worst, we are hoping for the best, and we're not taking any chances," said Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who warned that the state could begin to feel Matthew's wrath within the next 24 hours.

The path of the storm:

• The forecast is for the eye to pass near Freeport, the Bahamas, on Thursday morning.

• Southeast Florida, specifically the West Palm Beach area, will likely be hit Thursday afternoon by tropical storm-strength wind gusts.

• By Friday morning, Melbourne and/or Daytona Beach could begin to be battered by hurricane wind gusts and rain.

• Charleston, S.C., should start feeling the effects of the storm Saturday morning. By the afternoon, it's expected to be off the coast of Myrtle Beach, where it's forecast to weaken as it turns eastward and moves away from the land.
  

RELATED: See Hurricane Matthew approaching the United States

"We have to prepare and assume we will have a direct hit by this catastrophic hurricane," Scott said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

Scott said wind and storm surge could be the deadliest factors.

"Please do not go to the beach and try to surf. This can kill you, and we cannot save you," he warned. "Wind strength is our biggest concern, regardless if the storm directly hits or or not."

Scott said that 1,500 National Guard members had been activated and that he had asked President Barack Obama to declare a federal emergency in 26 counties.

President Obama speaks out on the storm:

Scott and other officials said anyone in an area that could be affected by the storm should be sure to have three days' worth of water and food.

In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley ordered everybody out of the historic, low-lying cities of Charleston and Beaufort. And in a bid to keep the highways from being clogged, Haley urged Georgetown and Horry County residents to sit tight until Thursday.

"What we're trying to do is, actually, because the storm changed, we are changing with the storm," Haley said. "Beaufort and Charleston definitely need to go ahead and plan on evacuating at 3 [p.m. ET], but we saw that because the storm had slowed down, we can move that evacuation for Georgetown and Horry to tomorrow morning."

South Carolina officials said Wednesday evening that more than 250,000 people had already been evacuated.

See the devastation from the storm so far:

Even before Haley spoke, westbound traffic on Interstate 26 was already packed with South Carolinians and visitors like Lydia and Steve Dalton of Zionsville, Ind., who were headed away from the coast in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

"It took us a long time to get out of Charleston," Lydia Dalton told NBC News. "We thought we were leaving way ahead of everyone else."

Dean Legge helps his sister-law Josey Vereen remove furniture from the lower level of her beachfront home Tuesday in Garden City Beach, S.C., in anticipation of Hurricane Matthew. Randall Hill / Reuters

Many were headed for the state capital, Columbia, where hotel rooms were already scarce.

"The phones have been ringing off the hooks," said Jana Medlin, director of sales at the Inn at USC Wyndham Garden near the University of South Carolina campus.

Meanwhile, Obama was briefed on the storm and the federal response at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters.

"I want to emphasize to the public: This is a serious storm," Obama said. "It has already hit Haiti with devastating effect. It is now in the process of moving through the Bahamas. Because it's not going to be hitting enough land, it is going to be building strength on its way to Florida."

"Not only is there still a chance that the core of the storm strikes Florida and some of the states further north, but even if you don't get the full force of the hurricane, we are still going to be seeing tropical force winds, the potential for a storm surge, and all of that could have a devastating effect," Obama said.

So far, according to officials, the monster storm has been blamed for 25 deaths: 19 in Haiti, four in the Dominican Republic, one in the island chain of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and one in northeastern Colombia.

On Florida's east coast, mandatory evacuations were underway from the barrier islands in Brevard County, and many coastal residents in Duval, Volusia and Flagler counties were already starting to head inland.

There were empty shelves and long gas station lines as residents stocked up on supplies and fuel and prepared to make their own exoduses ahead of the storm.

Scott, like the governors of Georgia and the Carolinas, has already declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. He also ordered state offices in 26 counties closed on Thursday and Friday.

"It's good that [people] are actually paying attention to the storm and are being prepared," said Stacie Klein, 45, of Delray Beach, Fla.

Several stores had been picked clean by Tuesday, Klein said.

"If things look too bad, it's hotel bound for me," she added. "I'm glued to the TV and have notifications and alerts sent to my phone."

Until Hurricane Hermine hit Florida last month as a category 1 storm, many Floridians had never experienced one. More than a million people have moved to Florida since the last major hurricane, Wilma, hit the state in 2005, according to U.S. Census figures.

Food and gas shortages were also reported up in South Carolina.

Myrtle Beach resident Michaela Choate, 22, said she "couldn't even get near a gas station" on Tuesday.

"It was so packed. You couldn't get into the parking lot," said Choate, who was able to fill up Wednesday before taking off with her family for Asheville, N.C.

"It's kind of scary to think something like this is coming to hit our home," she said.

The Mount Pleasant, S.C., Police Department asked residents to avoid calling 911 over gas shortages, adding: "Remember to be patient with one another."

Matthew caused widespread damage across Haiti, killing at least 19 people, before making landfall in Cuba about 8 p.m. ET Tuesday. It strafed Cuba's coast and was expected to being bearing down on the Bahamas late Wednesday.

"There is a danger of life-threatening inundation during the next 36 hours along the Florida east coast from North Palm Beach to the Sebastian Inlet," the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.

North Carolina Gov. Gov. Pat McCrory had also declared an emergency in 66 counties, but he expressed relief Wednesday as the latest models showed the storm moving away from the coastal areas of his state.

"I just hope that thing goes out to the ocean before it even hits our borders," he said.

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