Hurricane Matthew has killed at least 39 people, the death toll in struggling Haiti alone rising to 35, local officials said, as the storm headed northward on Thursday battering the Bahamas en route to Florida.
Hurricane Matthew has killed at least 39 people, the death toll in struggling Haiti alone rising to 35, local officials said, as the storm headed northward on Thursday battering the Bahamas en route to Florida.
Haitis civil protection service put the toll in the impoverished Caribbean nation at 23 dead, many killed by falling trees, flying debris and swollen rivers. The interior ministry and a local mayor confirmed 12 other deaths to Reuters across Haiti. Four people were killed earlier in neighbouring Dominican Republic.
Matthew is the strongest hurricane in the Caribbean since Felix struck in 2007. On Tuesday and Wednesday it whipped Cuba and Haiti with 140 mile-per-hour winds and torrential rain, pummeling towns and destroying livestock, crops and homes .
The devastation in Haiti prompted authorities to postpone a presidential election originally planned for Sunday.
Millions flee as Southeast U.S. braces for Hurricane Matthew
The fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade slammed into the Bahamas early on Thursday, intensifying as it barreled towards the southeast U.S. coast where millions of residents heeded warnings to flee inland. Roadways in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were jammed and gas stations and food stores ran out of supplies as Hurricane Matthew approached, packing storm surges, heavy rain and sustained winds that accelerated overnight to around 125 miles (205 km) per hour. The four states in the path of the hurricane, tracked 255 miles (410 km) southeast of West Palm Beach, declared states of emergency enabling their governors to mobilise the National Guard.
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