FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Matthew’s slog toward the East Coast has government officials worried about complacency, especially in South Florida, which hasn’t seen a major hurricane in 11 years.

South Carolina’s governor said she would issue an evacuation order Wednesday so that 1 million people would have time to leave the coast, and residents up and down the Eastern seaboard flocked to hardware stores, grocery aisles and gas stations to prepare for the powerful storm.

A dangerous Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph, Matthew was bearing down on the southern Bahamas early Wednesday amid forecasters’ predictions it would be very near Florida’s Atlantic coast by Thursday evening. Already the hurricane was spreading high winds, heavy rain and a dangerous storm surge ahead of it on its approach to the Bahamas, forecasters said.(nydailynews.com)…[+]