Hurricane Matthew weakened to a Category
1 storm Saturday, nearing the end of a four-day rampage that left a
trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean and up the Atlantic
coast of Florida.
The death toll in Haiti, where Matthew
first made landfall on Tuesday, rose to at least 400, officials said, as
the scope of the devastation became clearer in the impoverished
Caribbean country’s hard-hit south.
But by 1300 GMT, a weakening Matthew
appeared to be nearing the end of its run, lashing the southern coast of
South Carolina after leaving more than a million people without power
in Florida and claiming five lives in the United States.
The Miami-based National Hurricane
Center (NHC) downgraded the storm to a Category 1 hurricane, with
maximum sustained winds subsiding to a still dangerous 75 miles (130
kilometers) per hour.
It was located 20 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, a port city with a historic city center.
The NHC said hurricane and tropical
storm conditions were expected in Georgia and South Carolina, but the
bigger threat may be a storm surge of as much as nine feet (three
meters) in places.
“The combination of a dangerous storm
surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry
areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from
the shoreline,” the NHC said.
Authorities in South Carolina ordered thousands to evacuate inland to shelters, where people sprawled out in school gyms.
Millions of Americans were subject to
evacuation orders and curfews were slapped on cities as the lethal storm
barreled north after storming through Haiti, Dominican Republic,
Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas.
“The weather experts have described
Matthew as a once in a 100-year type of storm,” said Mayor Lenny Curry
in Jacksonville, Florida, home to 850,000 people — nearly half of whom
had been evacuated.
“We want our citizens to be safe. Our focus throughout this event has been public safety.”
President Barack Obama has declared federal states of emergency in Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina.
Torrential rain and strong winds lashed
cities, bringing down trees, causing tall buildings to sway after
nightfall and turning normally bustling population centers into ghost
towns.
At least five people died in
hurricane-related incidents in Florida — two women killed by falling
trees, a third woman from a heart attack and a couple killed by carbon
monoxide as they ran a generator in their home’s garage.
Matthew damaged roofs at the Kennedy
Space Center but spared Florida’s heavily populated south-central coast a
direct hit. “The worst effects are still likely to come,” warned
Governor Rick Scott, referring to expected flooding.
In St Augustine — a former Spanish
colony that calls itself the nation’s oldest city — roads were deserted
Friday, many blocked by downed trees or flooded with ocean water and the
city eerily empty under darkly menacing skies.
Mayor Nancy Shaver said up to half the
population in vulnerable zones had refused to evacuate. Officials up and
down the coast urged people to stay at home once the storm moved in.
Evacuation orders covered some three
million residents, with cities like Jacksonville and Savannah, Georgia.
in the storm’s path.
Cities including Savannah and Charleston
in South Carolina ordered dusk-to-dawn curfews to keep people off the
streets and guard against looting.
“Pray,” Republican Congressman Buddy
Carter, whose district includes the Georgia coast, told a news
conference. “Pray that this storm moves offshore and doesn’t come in to
harm anyone.”
The presidential candidates Republican
Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton received briefings on the
storm from Homeland Security and each offered messages of solidarity to
those affected.
Around 2,200 vulnerable people,
including the sick, the elderly and young families, were bused out of
Savannah. Officials threatened to arrest anyone caught defying a
night-time curfew.
“To save my life, I’d leave home
anytime,” said Eugene Johnson, 40, a forklift operator leaving with his
76-year-old father who recently suffered a stroke and has a heart
condition.
“You gotta evacuate. If you stay, that’s
like signing a death certificate. I don’t want to die, I’ve got to take
care of my dad.”
The South Carolina Emergency Management
Division tweeted that the situation was “DIRE for barrier islands” most
exposed to the ocean.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said
the storm was “getting worse.” More than 300,000 of the 500,000 people
in at-risk areas had been evacuated but that “was not enough.”
Some coastal islands, Haley added, “will be under water.”
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