As Hurricane Matthew closes in on southern Florida, Canadians living in the Sunshine State are among those fleeing the region or hunkering down for the colossal storm.

A Montreal couple living in Fort Lauderdale have bolted covers over their windows, a safety measure they hope will protect their home from winds that could reach over 100 km/hour.

“We are where we are and there’s nowhere to go from this point,” Bob Altner told CTV Montreal.

Altner and his wife, former CTV Montreal reporter Sandi Krawchenko, have braced for six major hurricanes since they moved to Florida 15 years ago, and they say they hope this storm isn’t as destructive as Hurricane Wilma in 2006.

“We’re hoping for the best and we’ll come out the other side of it,” Altner said.

Hurricane Matthew has already killed at least 114 people after it tore through the Caribbean. At least 108 of those deaths were from Haiti. The storm has also prompted government officials – including President Barack Obama – to urge more than 2 million people living in the Southeast U.S. to head for safety inland.

At least 500,000 Canadians own property in Florida, according to a 2013 report from the Bank of Montreal. Many of those homeowners are “snowbirds” who have yet to fly south for the winter, and many Canadian-owned properties are condos that are well equipped to handle extreme weather.

“The vast majority of Montrealers live in condos (in Florida). The condos are high rises, they’re well built, they’re equipped with windows that are tested against hurricanes, and they’re a requirement to have for your insurance policy. So I think most Montrealers will weather the storm,” said Neil Drabkin, a Montreal-based lawyer who owns property in Florida.

An Ottawa woman who arrived in Sanford, Florida on Wednesday for vacation is now spending her night with a friend in the safety of a walk-in closet, where they have a Scrabble board and plenty of bottled water.

“We’re prepared. We have food, we have water, we have a generator. So we’re good,” said Ottawa resident Theresa Haveman.

More than 3,000 flights for Thursday and Friday were cancelled over safety concerns, and the Fort Lauderdale airport and the Orlando airport were both shut down.

Hurricane Matthew is expected to be the most powerful storm to strike the U.S. eastern coast in more than 10 years.

With reports from CTV Ottawa, CTV Montreal and the Associated Press