Dave Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS Julius Butler of Anniston, Ala., left, and Patrick O'Malley of Cranston, R. I., watch the heavy waves along Lake Worth in West Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday. Gale force winds from Hurricane Floyd were hitting the East coast of Florida.

Ohio University freshman Jennifer Hutchinson's home is in Hurricane Floyd's way.

So after trying for days to find a hotel room, Hutchinson's mother and brother took family photos and important documents and left the coast.

"Everywhere she called, from Tallahassee to Alabama, was booked," Hutchinson said.

The Hutchinsons will wait out the storm with family in Mississippi and hope their Jacksonville home will still be there when they return in a few days.

"My mother is really nervous," Hutchinson said of her house that is four blocks off the Atlantic coast. "It'll probably rock our neighborhood."

COCOA BEACH, Fla. - Heavy rain lashed the Florida coast ahead of Hurricane Floyd last night, as evacuees from Florida to the Carolinas streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic to flee one of the most fearsome storms of the century.

The monstrous, 600-mile storm - bigger than the whole state of Florida - threatened to roll ashore early Thursday, probably in North Carolina. Nearly 2 million people were told to get out of the way as Floyd skirted the north-central Florida coast and headed farther north.

Heavy rain fell from West Palm Beach to Cape Canaveral Tuesday evening, with forecasters expecting tropical storm winds to come ashore just before dawn. There still was a chance the coast could get hit today with hurricane-force winds greater than 74 mph.

By 11 p.m., Floyd was centered 170 miles east-southeast of Cape Canaveral, moving northwest at 13 mph. Its winds had eased to 140 mph from Monday's 155 mph, but it was still a Category 4 storm, the second most powerful hurricane designation.

Forecasters expected the storm to continue north, with the eye about 100 miles off the coast, so Florida and Georgia might avoid the worst winds and rains. The latest model from the National Hurricane Center predicted landfall in Wilmington, N.C., early Thursday.

Walt Disney World closed early because of the weather for the first time in its 28-year history. Other Orlando-area resorts like Universal Studios and SeaWorld also shut down.

At Cape Canaveral's nearly deserted Kennedy Space Center, 102 workers volunteered to stay behind to ride out Floyd, which NASA feared could destroy launch pads and the hangars where all four space shuttles are kept.

President Clinton issued pre-emptive disaster declarations for Florida and Georgia to enable recovery efforts to begin as quickly as possible. He also planned to return a day early from his trip to New Zealand.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, at a staging area near Atlanta, began loading trucks with food, water, cots, sleeping bags, blankets, generators, portable toilets, flashlights and plastic sheeting so that they could be delivered to hard-hit areas in a hurry.

In Georgia, authorities ordered 500,000 people to evacuate six coastal counties. A similar order covered 800,000 people in South Carolina, a week shy of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo's destructive run.

To ease traffic out of Charleston, all lanes of Interstate 26 were switched over to westbound traffic leading to Interstate 95.

In North Carolina, residents were urged to evacuate outlying islands on the Outer Banks, and Gov. Jim Hunt declared a state of emergency.

In north and central Florida, where hundreds of thousands were warned to clear out, traffic was bumper-to-bumper on hurricane escape routes.

Daytona Beach, Palm Beach and other coastal areas were virtual ghost towns as most people appeared to heed evacuation orders. Most gas stations, restaurants and shops were closed.

Still, some people refused to abandon their homes and businesses. Some went to the beach to watch the increasingly powerful surf, while others kicked back with friends in bars.

While Americans were fleeing inland, Hurricane Floyd vented its fury on the Bahamas, toppling trees and power lines, stripping roofs from homes and sending rolling sea waters into the streets of the capital, Nassau. Phone service was cut off throughout much of the low-lying Atlantic archipelago, and residents and tourists sought safety in government shelters.

A hurricane warning was in effect along the U.S. coast from Fort Pierce to the North Carolina-Virginia border. High surf advisories were in effect as far north as Chatham on Massachusetts' Cape Cod.

The hurricane warning was lifted south of Fort Pierce after the storm made a northward turn. Evacuees were allowed to return home in the Miami area.

Hurricane winds extended 125 miles from Floyd's eye and tropical storm-force winds reached out as far as 290 miles, posing a threat far inland along the Southeast coast.

Hundreds of airline flights in and out of Florida and Georgia were canceled, and Amtrak suspended train service into and out of Miami, scrambling the plans of vacationers and business travelers around the country. The Navy sent ships to ride out the storm at sea, and military aircraft were flown inland to bases from Maine to Texas.

Although OU sophomore Mike Gaums' mother is calm about Hurricane Floyd's possible devastating effects on their Delray Beach house, he said he is concerned about much more.

"I have a lot of friends in the area who I haven't heard from," Gaums said. "So I'm hoping they will be all right."

Like many Florida residents, Gaums' mother, stepfather, brother and two neighbors boarded up windows and barricaded the doors before evacuating their home yesterday. The Gaums live about 28 miles north of Fort Lauderdale and five miles off the Atlantic coast - right in the path of Hurricane Floyd. They decided to wait out the storm in Naples, Florida at a friend's summer home.

"My mom expects some damage, but the rest of the house is pretty locked down," Gaums said. "Hurricane Andrew tore roofs off some houses, but there's really nothing you can do."

Despite the possible effects of the storm, Gaums remains optimistic.

"I'm hoping there will be a house there later," he said. "I guess it's like the saying, 'ride out the storm and see what happens.'"