Unseasonably warm dry weather has deepened a drought that’s igniting forest fires across the southeastern U.S., forcing people to flee homes in the Appalachian Mountains and blanketing Atlanta in a smoky haze.

Four fishermen and a dog reportedly have minor injuries after a boat fire in St. Simons Island Sound in Georgia, according to U.S. Coast Guard officials.

Five people were killed Sunday in an early morning blaze that engulfed an entire house in suburban Atlanta, authorities said.

Homeowner and auto insurers are dealing with thousands of claims in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. And some policyholders are discovering — or rediscovering — a hard truth: Standard homeowners’ policies typically do not cover flood damage, that is, damage from rising water.

Members of a local family say they are lucky to be alive after a car-wash part fell on their vehicle and nearly crushed them.
The Mitchell family says they were at a car wash in Conyers over the weekend when a massive part came loose and smashed their car with them in it.

Hurricane Matthew impaired or destroyed more than 1 million structures, forced businesses from Florida to North Carolina to close and put thousands temporarily out of work.

Early industry estimates had suggested that Hurricane Matthew insurance losses may be the second highest the country has ever seen. This storm represented the first direct hit the United States has experienced from a hurricane in over ten years.

Hurricane Matthew has left at least 10 dead in North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory said Monday, pushing the death toll across the Southeast to at least 21 even as the weakening storm still carried dangers of flooding.

Matthew was long gone from the Atlantic coast early Monday, but the devastation lingered, most notably in North Carolina, where flooded cities tried to dry out and those downstream kept a close eye on rising rivers.

As predicted, Hurricane Matthew devastated the entire southern region of Haiti overnight with wind damage, flooding, houses which have been destroyed or washed away, landslides, power outages, and crop losses.

With Hurricane Matthew ready to slam the US in the next day or two, time is running out to get ready. "I cannot emphasize enough that everyone in our state must prepare now for a direct hit," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday.

Air travelers were keeping a wary eye on Hurricane Matthew as forecasts continued to show it tracking toward the U.S. East Coast later this week. Underscoring the ominous forecast, several big U.S. airlines have extended their Matthew-related change-fee waivers to cover U.S. airports.

Authorities along the Georgia coast ratcheted up preparations for Hurricane Matthew, a dangerous Category 3 storm described by Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan as the strongest storm in the Atlantic in about 10 years.

Thousands of Americans were headed for higher ground Wednesday as deadly Hurricane Matthew crawled across the Caribbean and toward the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

Empty shelves and long gas-station lines were reported across the Southeast as coastal communities prepared Wednesday to flee deadly Hurricane Matthew.