Hurricane Matthew drenches Haiti, threatens catastrophe
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The leading edge of dangerous Hurricane Matthew drenched Haiti on Monday night, flooding streets and sending people scrambling to emergency shelters as the Category 4 storm threatened to batter the hemisphere’s poorest nation overnight with life-threatening winds, rains and storm surge.
A slightly strengthened Matthew had sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) late Monday, up from 140 mph (220 kph) earlier in the day. Its centre was expected to pass near or over the southwestern tip of impoverished Haiti after dawn on Tuesday, then head for another landfall in eastern Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
“We are looking at a dangerous hurricane that is heading into the vicinity of western Haiti and eastern Cuba,” said Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist with the centre. “People who are impacted by things like flooding and mudslides hopefully would get out and relocate because that’s where we have seen loss of life in the past.”
In the Port-au-Prince suburb of Tabarre, officials spent Monday urging shantytown residents living next to a muddy river to take shelter at a local school where cots were set up. While some went, many refused in fear their few possessions might be stolen.