6 dead as Hurricane Matthew lashes Caribbean

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.

Six people are dead and one missing as Hurricane Matthew continues to slowly move across the Caribbean toward Cuba, authorities said Tuesday.

Heavy rains from the powerful Category 4 storm killed four people in landslides and displaced 17,751 in the Dominican Republic, the Emergency Operations Center (COE) reported.

It also left 31 communities without access and 794 people in shelters, the COE added.

Two girls, 7 and 8, were killed when their house collapsed in the city center community of Capotillo.

"I dug into the Earth looking for them and found the youngest one," their grandfather, Genaro Payan, told the Day newspaper.

Authorities maintained red alerts in 19 of the country’s 32 provinces and urged residents to abide by mandatory evacuations in vulnerable areas.

The eye of the hurricane made landfall late Monday in Haiti where two victims have been killed and another is missing.

A sick woman died in the coastal town of Port-Salut after she was unable to leave her home to get medical assistance, local media said.

The other victim died after a small boat with three fishermen sank off the Saint-Jean-du-Sud community, the director of Haiti's Civil Protection Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste said. The missing person was on another boat Sunday in a nearby location.

"The situation is getting more difficult because it is raining a lot and many houses are flooded. Everyone prays Matthew does not do too much damage," Port au Prince resident Patrick St Pré told to Anadolu Agency.

Matthew struck the city of Anglais early Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of 230 kilometers per hour (145 miles per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

It is moving northward at a speed of 17 kph (10 mph), causing torrential rains, high winds, hazardous landslides, and flooding.

At least 9,280 people were placed in 311 temporary shelters in the departments of Grand Anse and Les Cayes, which are experiencing major floods, according to a civil defense official.

The center of the storm is about 60 kilometers (35 miless) north-northeast of Shark and is expected to hit eastern Cuba later Tuesday before passing over the central Bahamas on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Approximately 316,000 people were evacuated Monday by the civil defense of Cuba after the government activated its hurricane alert.

Authorities in the Bahamas closed schools in the central and southern Atlantic archipelago and canceled flights of its flag carrier, Bahamasair, toward the southern islands.

The U.S. deployed first aid supplies and disaster management teams to Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

As the hurricane moves closer to the U.S. mainland, the White House announced that President Barack Obama has canceled plans to travel to Florida where he was to campaign for his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later this week.

Obama was updated on Matthew’s potential impact earlier in the day, and FEMA, the U.S.’ emergency disaster response agency, has begun to stage resources in Albany, Georgia and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Earnest said that the move “can expedite the provision of assistance in the immediate aftermath" of Matthew.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Tuesday that she will likely finalize an evacuation order for coastal areas on Wednesday unless the storm shifts direction. The evacuation is set to begin at 3 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), she said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it would provide food to support Caribbean nations affected by Matthew and offered to feed up to 300,000 people for one month in Haiti.

"Our priority is to support government interventions to save lives and meet the food needs of the most vulnerable and food-insecure people affected," the group’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Miguel Barreto said in statement posted to the organization website.

*Anadolu Agency Washington Correspondent Michael Hernandez contributed to this report from Washington