He’s already caused the deaths of about 100 people on the island of Haiti, and now he’s heading to Florida.

Hurricane Matthew is expected to be a major storm when it grazes the coast of Florida this morning.

Forecast to be a category 4 storm, residents in its path have been urged to evacuate if they can.

The scenario should remind Mississippians that even though it’s been years since we’ve dealt with any kind of hurricane, much less a category 4 or higher, hurricanes will always be a threat to our area.

The troubling aspect of Matthew is his projected path. Some models have the storm grazing the coast before it makes a circle off

the eastern coast of Florida, with a big question mark as to the duration.

That forecast has Matthew back off the coast of Florida by Tuesday, with no further information on where it may head.

Residents who remember Hurricane

Katrina may recall that storm passed over the tip of Florida, before entering the Gulf

of Mexico, intensifying to a category 5 and later making landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a category 4.

Even though the future path of Matthew is still unknown, while we pray for the safety of Florida residents who will ride out the storm, we should also prepare for the worst should Matthew decide to do as Katrina and head into the Gulf of Mexico before intensifying again.

And even if Matthew moves off into the great blue sea and dies out quietly, his sister Nicole is churning out in the Atlantic Ocean.

While Nicole’s projected path has her circling out in the Atlantic and never making landfall, weather predictions are essentially educated guesses that change as conditions vary.