Residents of the US state of Florida scrambled to escape the path of Hurricane Matthew yesterday as it pounded the Bahamas after leaving 39 people dead in the Caribbean.
The storm, which is swirling near the northwest Bahamas, is expected to intensify to a Category 4 hurricane as it moves northwest toward Florida.
Matthew, the worst storm to hit the Caribbean in nearly a decade, has already forced the closure of airports in the Bahamas, with cruise ships rerouted from the popular tourist destination, the government said.
Photo: AFP
“Seriously consider now moving to higher ground,” Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie told southern coastal communities before the storm hit.
In its latest bulletin, the US-based National Hurricane Center reported that hurricane conditions were expected to reach Florida by late yesterday.
“This hurricane is life-threatening. Listen to your local officials and follow evacuation notices,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Twitter.
US President Barack Obama warned Americans in the storm’s path to take the threat seriously.
“We hope for the best, but we want to prepare for the worst,” he said.
The storm slammed into Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday, but has since been downgraded to a Category 3 by the National Hurricane Center.
The hurricane was expected to move “very close to the east coast of the Florida peninsula” yesterday through today, the center said.
“Everyone in our state must prepare now for a direct hit,” Scott said as evacuation orders were issued.
Schools and universities closed for the rest of the week, authorities were distributing sandbags for doorways and store shelves were bare.
“We’re not really afraid, Florida has been through this thing for years,” said Rick Basel, 63, a retiree loading his car with food and water to last three or four days.
Further north, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley ordered the evacuation of several coastal counties — with more than 1 million people affected.
The order included the historic city of Charleston, a tourist magnet boasting cobblestone streets lined with graceful antebellum homes.
News footage showed bumper-to-bumper jams on highways and tensions were high as some gas stations ran out of fuel.
As Matthew barreled northwest, Haiti and Cuba began the grim task of assessing the storm’s toll.
Matthew’s death toll stood at 39 — 35 in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic — but that looked certain to climb.
Haitian civil protection spokesman Edgar Celestin said the figures do not include data from the department of Grande Anse, which was in the eye of the storm and has been cut off.
Haiti’s presidential election, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed.
Haitian Interim President Jocelerme Privert, who surveyed the damage to southern Haiti on Wednesday in a US Coast Guard plane, called the situation “catastrophic.”
Matthew has knocked out a key bridge providing access to the nation’s south where the storm made landfall.
The severe flooding has also sparked a resurgence of cholera, with eight cases already reported, Haitian officials said.
The UN said half of Haiti’s population of 11 million was expected to be affected.
At least 350,000 people in Haiti, where thousands have lived in tents since a massive earthquake in 2010, need immediate assistance, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office said.
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