LES CAYES, Haiti // The death toll from Hurricane Matthew rose to 842 in Haiti on Friday, local officials said, as the still dangerous storm passed along the south-east US coast, killing one person in Florida.
The hurricane unleashed torrential rain on Florida, potentially devastating surges and 195 kilometre per hour winds, leaving 600,000 homes without power.
Fears of a potentially catastrophic impact in the US – which triggered mass evacuations – did not materialise as Matthew brushed Florida’s coast overnight from Thursday to Friday, causing power outages and damaging roofs at Cape Canaveral, home to the Kennedy Space Centre.
But Florida governor Rick Scott warned that “the worst effects are still likely to come” as the storm travels up the coastline as far as North Carolina.
Low-lying areas around Jacksonville, northern Florida, were seen as especially at risk, with flooding expected in the St Johns river of up to 2.7 metres.
“I emphasise this is still a really dangerous hurricane,” warned president Barack Obama, who declared a federal emergency for Florida and South Carolina as the storm barrelled in from the Caribbean.
“The bigger concern at this point is not just hurricane force winds, but storm surge.”
Meanwhile, the full scope of the disaster in impoverished Haiti was becoming clearer.
Aerial footage by journalists who made it to the hardest hit towns showed a ruined landscape of metal shanties with roofs blown away and downed trees everywhere. Brown mud from overflowing rivers covered the ground.
In Jeremie, a town of 30,000 people, 80 per cent of buildings were knocked down, said NGO Care.
Further south, the town of Les Cayes, Haiti’s third largest, was battered.
“I thought I was going to die. I looked death in the face,” said 36-year-old Yolette Cazenor, standing in front of a house smashed in two by a fallen coconut palm.
“Everyone is a victim here, houses have been washed away, we lost all the roofing. I lost everything,” added Dominique Osny.
For 10 hours on Tuesday, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain levelled all the crops in the community’s fields, promising lean months ahead even by Haiti’s impoverished standards.
The storm was only the latest natural disaster to ravage the Caribbean nation, which in January 2010 was hit by a devastating earthquake that demolished much of the capital and killed more than 250,000.
The US navy said one of its ships was steaming towards Haiti on Friday to support relief efforts.
“The USS Mesa Verde has received an order to support the Southcom humanitarian effort in Haiti,” a US defence official said. The amphibious transport dock ship’s 300 Marines and three CH-53 heavy lift helicopters will add to the 250 personnel and nine helicopters already ordered to deploy to Haiti.
The USS Mesa Verde also brings with it bulldozers, fresh water delivery vehicles and a surgical team, and is capable of producing 72,000 gallons of fresh water per day. It is also stocked with pallets of food, medicine, baby formula, nappies, first aid supplies and other key items.
In coastal communities across Florida, deserted streets were battered by wind and horizontal rain, with reports of downed power lines and uprooted trees blocking roadways and keeping residents trapped in place.
At least one person died, with fire officials saying a woman had suffered a medical emergency in St Lucie County but that conditions prevented crews from reaching her.
Matthew remained lurking just offland as a slightly weakened but still very dangerous Category 3 storm, said the National Hurricane Centre.
The big question was if, when and how it will hit the coast.
Matthew was making its way up a 750-mile strip from Boca Raton in Florida towards Surf City, North Carolina, driving seawater and heavy rain inland.
The NHC forecast the storm’s eye to move near or over the coast of north-east Florida and Georgia on Friday night, and near or over the South Carolina coast on Saturday.
Along with Haiti, Matthew also battered Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, where it killed four.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters