Empty shelves and long gas-station lines were reported across the Southeast as coastal communities prepared Wednesday to flee deadly Hurricane Matthew. A state of emergency was declared in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as the Category-3 hurricane crawled through the Caribbean and threatened a damaging rendezvous with the U.S. coast later this week. Meteorologists are still unclear exactly how Matthew will impact the U.S, but South Carolina is preparing to evacuate almost a quarter of its population and other states have brought in the National Guard.