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Hurricane Matthew is expected to carry winds of more than 145 mph across the Caribbean before heading toward Florida and up the East Coast. USA TODAY NETWORK
A tap tap (public transportation) crosses the water left by the rain after hurricane Matthew, in Port-au-Prince, on October 4, 2016. (Photo: Hectpr Retamal, AFP/Getty Images)
Hurricane Matthew lashed Haiti's southwestern coast Tuesday with raging winds, driving rain, and storm surge that threatened to devastate the impoverished Caribbean nation's towns and villages.
The hurricane has killed at least seven people over the past few days as it roared across the Caribbean, the Associated Press reported.
The region's strongest storm in almost a decade made landfall on Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 145 mph at 7 a.m. It is the first major hurricane (Category 3, 4, or 5) to hit Haiti in 50 years, since Inez in 1966, Colorado State University reported.
As of 11 a.m. ET, Matthew was located 35 miles north-northeast of Tiburon, Haiti, over the Gulf of Gonave, the body of water to the northwest of Haiti, the National Hurricane Center said. It was moving to the north at 10 mph. The storm will move over eastern Cuba later Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Heavy rain was falling across Haiti.
"We’re expecting a lot of houses to go down because of the poor housing infrastructure in a lot of the rural areas where we work," said John Hasse, an aid worker in Haiti with the humanitarian organization World Vision. "With wind this strong, it will be extremely damaging and dangerous and homes for the average person are made of mud and sticks or poorly constructed cinderblocks.”
Hasse said that in the capital Port-au-Prince "people are starting to realize that this could be big and they have been stocking up."
Tiburon Mayor Remiza Denize told Reuters that people who had been reluctant to leave their homes fled when large waves began crashing into the town.
"Everyone is trying to find a safe place to protect themselves, the situation is very difficult," Denize said.
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Heavy wind and rain combined with massive waves to pound the tourist town of Port Salut.
“The winds are making so many bad noises. We’re just doing our best to stay calm,” Jenniflore Desrosiers, taking refuge with her family in her fragile cinderblock home, told the Associated Press.
The hurricane center then expects the storm to continue on for another landfall — expected in the lightly populated eastern end of Cuba.
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Stunning views of the dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Matthew as seen from the windows of the International Space Station. USA TODAY
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is already struggling to regain its footing almost seven years after an earthquake and ensuing cholera epidemic ravaged the nation. It is particularly vulnerable to vicious weather storms because it is one of the most deforested countries in the world: Less than 2% of the land still has trees.
The country also has relatively steep terrain as well, which can make it prone to landslides and mudslides.
Haiti’s civil protection agency has reported just one death so far, a fisherman who drowned in rough water churned up by the storm. That raised Matthew’s death toll to at least three. One man died in Colombia and a teen was killed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the storm moved through the Caribbean.
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But some shantytown residents have been reluctant to evacuate because they fear their possessions may be stolen. "If we lose our things we are not going to get them back!” Toussaint Laine, an unemployed man who lives with his family in a shack in Tabarre, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, told the Associated Press.
On Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti suffered one of its worst natural disasters when a magnitude-7.0 earthquake ripped through Port-au-Prince. Houses collapsed, many sinking down mountain slopes. Roads crumbled, people were trapped under concrete for days; 230,000 people died.
The earthquake caused significant damage in Port-au-Prince, and government buildings such as the Presidential Palace and the National Assembly building were damaged or destroyed. Infrastructure was gutted, and at least 1 million people were forced to live in tent cities.
An epidemic of cholera, an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine that is often contracted from infected water supplies. broke out about 10 months after the earthquake, killing thousands more.
Since the earthquake, the deadliest storm system in Haiti was Hurricane Sandy in 2012, according to Weather Underground. While Sandy did not make a direct hit on the island, it resulted in 75 deaths, $250 million in damage and one of its worst fallouts: a resurgence of cholera that infected about 5,000 people.
Before the 2010 earthquake, the most vicious hurricane season in Haiti was 2008 when four storms struck: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. Nearly 800 people were killed; 22,000 homes were destroyed; 70% of the country's crops were lost, according to reliefweb.org.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
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Stunning views of the dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Matthew as seen from the windows of the International Space Station. USA TODAY
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Many Cubans with houses in Guantanamo province, located along Hurricane Matthew's predicted path, are evacuated and take shelter at a university. Video provided by AFP Newslook
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Six things that you should always have in your emergency kit. Time
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Hurricane Matthew is expected to carry winds of more than 145 mph across the Caribbean before heading toward Florida and up the East Coast. USA TODAY NETWORK
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Residents in Cuba's second largest city scrambled on Monday to buy supplies and evacuate vulnerable areas as Hurricane Matthew threatens the eastern-most province of the island. (Oct. 3) AP
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Hurricane Matthew is approaching Jamaica and Haiti. The Category 4 storm has winds of about 130 miles per hour. USA TODAY
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Hurricane Matthew's strength is being felt in Jamaica as the island nation faces torrential rainfall and strong winds from the category 4 hurricane. Matthew is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history. (Oct. 2) AP
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Jamaicans are monitoring Hurricane Matthew, which earlier projections had it moving closer to the island nation, as it churned slowly across the Caribbean Sea. (Oct. 2) AP
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One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history weakened a little on Saturday as it roared across the Caribbean on a course that put Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba in the path of potentially devastating winds and rain. Time
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Threatening Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas, Hurricane Matthew weakened as it churned across the Caribbean. Wochit
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