New | Death toll rises to 26 as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward southern US after leaving trail of destruction in Haiti and Cuba
In the United States, more than 1.5 million people were urged to evacuate the southeastern coast
Hurricane Matthew twisted toward the Bahamas and Florida’s east coast on Wednesday after killing at least 26 people and damaging a majority of homes in Haiti’s south, prompting the hard-hit country to postpone a long-awaited presidential election.
The powerful Category 3 hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, whipped Cuba and Haiti with 230km/h winds and torrential rains on Tuesday, pummelling towns and destroying livestock, crops and homes.
This is unbelievable. The little we have we tried to look after, we know we don’t have the means to get more
In the United States, more than 1.5 million people were urged to evacuate the southeastern coast and Florida Governor Rick Scott warned residents to prepare for a possible direct hit that could be catastrophic.
Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from the path of Matthew, which caused severe flooding and killed four people in the Dominican Republic as well as at least 22 in Haiti. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola.
The storm carved a path of devastation through southwestern Haiti, dumping boats and debris on coastal roads hit by surging seas and flooding residential areas heavily.
Some 80 per cent of homes were damaged in Haiti’s Sud Department, which has a population of more than 700,000, a government official said in a meeting with UN officials. Some 11,000 people were in shelters in the province.