Killer hurricane clean-up bill to reach billions
HURRICANE Matthew continued to wreak havoc across America’s Atlantic coast, despite being downgraded to a Category 1 storm.
More than 1.4 million people were left without power, as 85mph winds lashed US southern states, ripping up trees and bringing heavy rainfall.
The storm, which has already killed six people in Florida and nearly 900 in Haiti, battered the coasts of both Georgia and South Carolina, cutting off coastal communities.
A spokesman for the National Hurricane Centre said: “We have been very fortunate that Matthew’s strongest winds have remained a short distance offshore of the Florida and Georgia coasts thus far.
“However, this should not be a reason to let down our guard.”
The governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, added: “Now is the time we ask for prayer,” as she finished an update on storm preparations.
Matthew, the most powerful hurricane to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade, is expected to leave a multi-billion dollar clean-up bill.
In Florida, the storm gouged out several large sections of the coastal A1A highway north of Daytona Beach and almost completely washed out the northbound lane for about a mile at Flagler Beach.
The victims in Florida included an elderly St Lucie County couple who died from carbon monoxide fumes while running a generator in their garage.
Two women were also killed in separate events when trees fell on a home and a camper.
Some of the most historic sites in the US were subjected to a battering.
St Augustine, which is the nation’s oldest permanently occupied European settlement, was awash in rain and grey seawater.
Mayor Nancy Shaver said: “It’s a really serious, devastating situation.
“The flooding is just going to get higher and higher and higher.”
Historic Charleston, usually bustling with tourists, was eerily quiet, with many central stores and shops boarded up with plywood and protected by stacks of sandbags.
The city announced a midnight-to-6am curfew, about the time the coast was expected to take the brunt of the storm, while North Carolina governor Pat McCrory warned people not to let their guard down just because Matthew was weakening.
The storm caused airlines to cancel at least 5000 flights, including many in and out of Orlando, where all three of the resort city’s world-famous theme parks – Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld – were closed.
President Obama said: “We’re still on the front end of this hurricane.
“We don’t know how bad the damage could end up, and we don’t know how severe the storm surge could end up being.”