Hurricane Matthew death toll hits 1,000
A WOMAN sits amid the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti as the death toll approaches 1,000.
The Caribbean island was left in ruins as the storm last night continued to batter the US coast.
Rescuers in the south of Haiti said the 145mph winds had caused “complete destruction” in some areas. Almost 900 bodies have so far been recovered.
UN officials said up to 350,000 people need emergency aid. And with sanitation services wiped out, there are growing fears of a cholera epidemic. One survivor in the devastated town of Chantal was pulled from the wreckage of his home after it was crushed by a tree.
Jean-Pierre Jean-Donald said: “The entire house fell on us. People came to lift the rubble, and then we saw my wife. She had died.”
In Jeremie, farmer Andre Moise, 26, said: “We are lucky to be alive. But we have lost everything – our animals, our harvest, our documents. All we have is the clothes on our backs and the water from the coconuts.”
Haiti, one of the world’s poorest nations, had not fully recovered from the 2010 earthquake which killed tens of thousands. Matthew also killed four people in neighbouring Dominican Republic. And in Florida, where it made landfall on Friday, eight people died.
More than three million people in four states have been ordered to evacuate. Damage could cost up to $30billion to repair.
President Obama warned the hurricane remains “very dangerous” with storm surges and further flooding expected.