As local officials continued to urge area residents to evacuate Friday morning and help those without transportation to get out of the area, Hurricane Matthew continued on course to ravage Coastal Georgia.

In Liberty County, business on the east end closed Thursday night and remained shuttered Friday. Deputies were readying to close Islands Highway — the only access to the marsh communities out there — at 10 a.m.

The National Hurricane Center reported early Friday that the storm will produce “devastating impacts from storm surge, extreme winds and heavy rain along extensive portions of the east-central and northeast coast of Florida today.”

Coastal Georgia, including Bryan, Liberty and Long will start feeling the tropical force winds this afternoon as the storm tracks along the Georgia Coast this evening into Saturday morning.

An alert issued by the National Weather Service’s Charleston Office this morning said the storm was 220 miles south-southeast of Savannah and packing 120 mph winds.

All of our area is under hurricane warnings.