Rainfall of up to 25 inches – with isolated areas of 40 inches – is forecast over the next two days across southern Haiti and parts of the southwestern Dominican Republic. “All I can do is pray and then pray some more”.
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Hundreds of people had to be airlifted out of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay as Matthew heads toward Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica.
He said heavy rain, spin-off tornadoes, high winds and beach erosion are among the concerns in Florida.
As of 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), the storm was centered about 35 miles north-northeast (60 kilometers) of Tiburon, Haiti, and 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of the eastern tip of Cuba.
“This means business, especially with rain, storm surge and everything it brings with it”, First Alert meteorologist Tim Miller said.
Matthew briefly reached the top classification, Category 5, becoming the strongest hurricane in the region since Felix in 2007.
Gov. Rick Scott on Monday signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency for all of Florida as a major hurricane threatened to churn up the East Coast later in the week.
With the new forecast track shifting the cone over a large swath of the state, including South Florida, state officials warned residents to get serious about preparations. “It’s a small country and they don’t really have a place to go when these types of events happen”.
A hurricane watch is in effect for Turks and Caicos, northwestern Bahamas, and the Cuban province of Camaguey. The Red Cross put out a call for volunteers in SC.
Still, computer models have come into better agreement on where Matthew’s route will take it, clustering away from Florida’s coast.
Scott said he declared the state of emergency due to how storms can change track with little notice. The slower the storm moves, the more we need to push back the timing of its impending arrival.
Maps on the website indicated there is up to a 10 percent chance that tropical storm force sustained winds of 39 miles per hour or more may reach Southern Virginia later this week.
“There’s absolutely nothing we can do to protect ourselves here”, motorcycle taxi driver Joseph Paul said as he watched torrents of brown water wash over a road and deluge his low-lying neighborhood in Leogane. “Even the rain season has been bad”.
According to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, 48 shelters are already providing refuge for 3,015 people in Florida.
Jean Jabouin, a Delray Beach middle-school teacher, worries about his mother in southern Haiti and his sister in Port-au-Prince.
He wants to make sure counties are prepared if the storm moves toward Florida, spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said.
“I got scared because all that was left at Publix was just the pricey water”, said Corrado, who lived through 1992’s catastrophic Hurricane Andrew, which practically leveled the nearby city of Homestead. “We’ll see if that continues”.
Schools and government offices will be closed tomorrow in SC, and Haley recommended that residents move at least 100 miles from the coast. Authorities broadcast warnings over the radio and across social media.
Les Cayes Mayor Jean Gabriel Fortuné said Tuesday morning the storm was slamming into his city.
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Image copyright AP Image caption Haitian authorities have been trying to persuade people to evacuate their homes Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many Haitians live in flimsy huts vulnerable to flooding.
