Reading the history of the comparable Hurricane Hazel from 1954, which at the moment is showing near-identical dynamics as that of Hurricane Matthew, Hazel made landfall in on the GA/South Carolina coastline, then moved northeast continuing up the eastern coastline. Approximately 8 hours later, the storm was impacted by a cold-front and changed direction to a northwesterly path, moving through Pennsylvania and parts of NY. The following day the storm was centered over Toronto, Canada, where it was still categorized as a category-1 hurricane.
Although it would be futile to attempt to predict any means of correlative impacts from what occurred 62 years ago with what may or may not occur today, there were nearly 200 lives lost combined between Canada and the US, with over $380 million in estimated damages.
So there is every reason, even if it ends up moving back into the ocean after making landfall, to at least pay attention to historical precedences.