'Monster' Matthew hits Florida leaving 200,000 without power on first impact: Now 26 MILLION lie in hurricane's path with states of emergency in three states after thousands REFUSED to evacuate

A state of emergency has been declared as Hurricane Matthew made first landfall on Florida with the full force of the deadly Category Four storm and its potentially catastrophic winds of 130 mph still to hit on Friday. Two million people across the Southeast were warned to flee inland as tens of millions along 500 miles of coastline battened down the hatches. The 'once-in-a-lifetime' storm is the most powerful hurricane to threaten the U.S. Atlantic coast in more than a decade and could be the most catastrophic to hit the north and east of Florida in 118 years. As of midnight on Friday, the storm was moving northwest at 13mph with winds at 130mph and the eye of the storm was 60 miles east of Fort Pierce, Florida. The devastating hurricane had already left more than 340 dead by Friday morning in its wake across the Caribbean as it laid waste to large swathes of coastal Haiti. 'This storm's a monster,' Governor Rick Scott warned as it started lashing the state with periodic heavy rains and squalls around nightfall. He added: 'I'm going to pray for everybody's safety. The storm has already killed people. We should expect the same impact in Florida.'