The National Hurricane Center’s 5:00 p.m. advisory puts the Category 4 storm 30 miles (45 kilometers) south-southwest of the eastern tip of Cuba, moving at 9.0 mph (15 kph). Matthew is still packing maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph), although the minimum central pressure has risen to 949 mb (28.03 inches).
In Les Cayes, Haiti, church pastor Louis St. Germain spoke by telephone with CNN News. “The river has overflowed all around us,” St. Germain said. “It’s terrible… a total disaster.” The pastor also reported a wall of his house had been sheared off and a number of homes lost roofs as the storm came through.
And in a real tragic loss for first responders, the bridge that connected Port-au-Prince with southern Haiti collapsed. There are also reports of communications towers affected by downed trees and people missing after being lost in the raging rivers.
There have been eight deaths associated with the storm, so far, but officials are saying the number of deaths will probably rise as efforts are being made to get to areas cut off by the storm.
“We’ve already seen deaths. People who were out at sea. There are people who are missing. They are people who didn’t respect the alerts. They’ve lost their lives,” Interim Haitian President Jocelerme Privert said at a news conference, as reported by CNN.
According to NBC News, one person died in Colombia, while the Dominican Republic is reporting four deaths, and a teen was killed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and in Haiti, there was the one fisherman who was killed over the weekend and another fisherman who is missing and presumed to be dead.
Some U.S. coastal states already under emergency declarations as Matthew moves to the north-northwest later this week. States of emergency have been declared for all of Florida and South Carolina; while parts of Georgia and North Carolina are also under emergencies.
As for Hurricane Matthew’s track, weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce says a lot will depend on what the storm does. Even if the eye of Matthew stays offshore, there will still be the potential for coastal flooding, beach erosion, battering surf, rain and gusty winds. “The magnitude of any of those impacts will depend on Matthew’s track and intensity at that time,” he said.
