Picking up the pieces
REUTERS PORT-AU-PRINCE The death toll from Hurricane Matthew in Haiti is approaching 900, with tens of thousands left homeless.
The storm weakened yesterday as it skirted Florida’s Atlantic coast and ploughed northward over waters just off Georgia.
The number of deaths in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, surged to at least 877 yesterday as information trickled in from remote areas previously cut off by the storm, according to a tally of death tolls given by officials.
Matthew has triggered mass evacuations along the United States Atlantic coast from Florida through Georgia and into South Carolina and North Carolina. It is the fiercest cyclone to affect the US since Superstorm Sandy four years ago.
Matthew smashed through Haiti’s western peninsula on Wednesday with 233kmh winds and torrential rain.
More than 61,000 people were in shelters, officials said, after the storm pushed the sea into fragile coastal villages, some of which were only now being contacted.
While highlighting the misery of underdevelopment in Haiti, which is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake, the storm looked certain to rekindle the debate about global warming and the long-term threat posed to low-lying cities and towns by rising sea levels.
At least three towns in the hills and coast of Haiti’s fertile western tip reported dozens of people killed, including the farming village of Chantal, where the mayor said 86 people died, mostly when trees crushed houses.
Officials said food was scarce, and at least seven people had died of cholera, likely because of floodwaters mixing with sewage.
The Mesa Verde, a US Navy amphibious transport dock ship, is heading to Haiti to support relief efforts. The ship has heavylift helicopters, bulldozers, fresh water delivery vehicles and two operating rooms.
Matthew sideswiped Florida’s coast with winds of up to 195kmh but did not make landfall. The US National Hurricane Centre downgraded the storm to a Category 2.
CNN reported at least four storm-related deaths.
Robert Walker, a 51-year-old mechanic, weathered the worst of the storm in his seaside Daytona Beach apartment, where winds peeled back the roof.
Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said he was concerned that the relatively light damage so far could give people further north a false sense of security.
‘‘The real danger still is storm surge, particularly in northern Florida and southern Georgia. These are very vulnerable areas. They’ve never seen this kind of damage potential since the late 1800s,’’ Fugate said.
In St Augustine, just south of Jacksonville, Florida, about half of the 14,000 residents refused to heed evacuation orders despite warnings of a 2.4-metre storm surge that could swamp entire neighbourhoods, Mayor Nancy Shaver said.
‘‘There’s that whole inability to suspend disbelief that I think really affects people in a time like this,’’ Shaver said. Reuters