As Hurricane Matthew continued to pound the eastern Floridacoast with high winds and rains that caused flooding and widespreadpower outages, more than 12 additional credit unions closed up shopon Friday.

Nearly 40 credit unions in Florida, Georgia and South Carolinaannounced branch closures on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of thestorm.

At about 4 p.m. Friday, the hurricane was still churning throughthe St. Augustine and Jacksonville areas and was beginning to hitthe Georgia coast.

The staff of the League of Southeastern Credit Unions has beencalling credit unions throughout south Florida to provide anyassistance and to get an overall damage assessment that may have been caused by the storm.

“We have been reaching out to all credit unions today, and atthis point the impact has been much less than originallyanticipated for south Florida credit unions,” Kim Gay, director ofcommunications for the Southeastern league, said. “Our concern nowis for those on the eastern side of the state. The storm islingering around the St. Augustine/Jacksonville area (at about 4:30p.m. Friday) and we won't have much information on damage untillater tonight or even tomorrow morning.”

In a Friday afternoon news conference, Jacksonville Mayor LennyCurry said three or four breaches have occurred to the sea walls,which is expected to flood parts of the downtown area, the WeatherChannel reported. There also have been reports of floodingthroughout city streets and residential areas in St. Augustine.

Much of South Florida, including Miami and Palm Beach regions,however, suffered no major property damage, according to the WeatherChannel.

Additional Florida credit unions that were closed on Fridayincluded CFE FCU, Dade County FCU, Florida Department ofTransportation CU, Insight CU, Jax Gildco Employees FCU, LaunchFCU, Martin FCU, Metro North FCU, Mid Florida CU, Orlando FCU,Priority CU and Publix CU. Space Coast CU closed 29 of its brancheson Friday, while more than 20 branches were open from 12 p.m. to 6p.m.

A few credit unions that had closed their branches on Thursdayreopened for business on Friday and some were planning to reopenbranches on Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, Hurricane Matthew began battering andflooding coastal towns in Georgia, according to The AtlantaJournal-Constitution.

Although the hurricane was downgraded from a Category 4 to aCategory 3, it still is considered very dangerous and is expectedto dump at least 14 inches of rain along the Georgia coast,according to local media reports.

In Georgia, at least five cooperatives announced branchclosings, including Memorial Health CU, Georgia Heritage FCU,Members First CU, Savannah Schools CU and Core CU.

Hurricane Matthew is expected to hit South Carolina earlySaturday morning. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley ordered anevacuation of coastal areas in and around Charleston andBeaufort.

In that state, credit unions that closed branches were CarolinaTrust FCU, Carolinas Telco FCU, Heritage Trust FCU, GeorgetownKraft CU, Marine FCU, Grow Financial CU, Safe FCU, Santee Cooper CUand South Carolina FCU.