A dual meet between NCAA Division II powerhouses Florida Southern University and Nova Southeastern University, scheduled for Saturday in Lakeland, Florida, has been cancelled with the looming Hurricane Matthew sitting just off the coast of Florida.
Evacuations ahead of the anticipated arrival of the powerful Category 3 hurricane (formerly a category 4) have begun as the storm passes through the Bahamas. Matthew has already killed 10 people after roaring through Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Evacuation orders are currently in place for parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
On Wednesday afternoon, the hurricane sat 70 miles from Long Island, Bahamas; or 400 miles from West Palm Beach, Florida, and is moving northwest at 11 miles per hour.
According to Weather Underground, the storm has sustained maximum winds as of 5PM Eastern Time of 120 mph with gusts up to 150mph.
There current track doesn’t necessarily indicate that the storm will make landfall before hooking back toward the southeast (and possibly interacting with the oncoming Tropical Storm Nicole), but it will come close enough, and is a powerful enough storm, to cause flooding and wind damage in the aforementioned U.S. states. The storm is expected to strengthen again over the next 36 hours as it approaches Florida.
The Nova Southeastern women’s and men’s team finished 11th and 4th, respectively, at last year’s NCAA Championships. Florida Southerns programs were 15th and 3rd.
