Moving at about 6.0 mph (9.0 kph) due north, the violent mega-storm will pass just east of Jamaica while brushing the southwestern edge of Haiti tonight or early Tuesday morning, say forecasters. The minimum central pressure of Hurricane Matthew is 941 mb (27.79 inches) at 11:00 a.m. Monday.
As the storm continues on its northward track, it’s slow movement is cause for great concern. Ronald Semelfort, the director of Haiti’s national meteorology center was quoted by Reuters , “We are worried about the slow pace of Hurricane Matthew, which will expose Haiti to much more rain, and the country is particularly vulnerable to flooding.”
As much as 40 inches of rain is expected to fall in some parts of the heavily deforested country, raising fears of mudslides and floods. Many families live in flimsy houses with corrugated metal roofs, and many of the streams are prone to bursting out of their banks during heavy rains.
Some people are refusing to evacuate
As serious as the threat to Haiti is, officials have run into problems getting some families to move to safe shelters in Haiti. Some streets in Les Cayes, a town of about 70,000 people, are flooded, but in the city’s La Savane neighborhood, there are about 2,000 people who are refusing to leave their seaside homes.
Les Cayes is just a few miles from where the eye of Hurricane Matthew is expected to make landfall, yet as with so many poor Haitians, they are afraid to leave their homes and belongings for fear they will be robbed. A high school in La Savane has been designated as a shelter, but very few people are there. There is no electricity and only candles cut the darkness.
Luc Pierre, the chief of police for the southern region, said it is almost impossible to move so many people. “I would have to arrest all those people and take them to a safe place. This is very difficult,” he said, adding that the town was already without power.
According to officials with Haiti’s civil protection agency, there are 1,300 emergency shelters set up across the country, able to handle roughly 340,000 people. Even though radio announcements have been broadcast regularly and teams of officials have gone through neighborhoods telling people to move to safety, it has been very difficult convincing people to move.
