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Hurricane Matthew prompts evacuations at Guantánamo Bay Haiti issues red alert warning as Caribbean braces for Hurricane Matthew
(about 7 hours later)
As Hurricane Matthew, a potentially devastating category 4 storm, swirled across the Caribbean on Sunday, toward Haiti and Jamaica, US authorities were evacuating non-essential personnel from the navy base at Guantánamo Bay. Haiti and Jamaica has urged residents in vulnerable coastal areas to evacuate, and Cuba suspended flights on Sunday as torrential rain from Hurricane Matthew, the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean nations since 2007, lashed the region.
Matthew’s slow-moving center is expected to bear down on south-western Haiti and Jamaica on Monday as a major storm bringing 145 miles-per-hour (230 km-per-hour) winds and rain that could trigger floods and landslides, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Up to 40 inches of rain, or more than a metre, could fall on some parts of southern Haiti, forecasters said.
Eastern Cuba will also feel bands of fierce wind and rain on Monday, the agency said.
“We are very worried by the situation,” Haitian interior minister Francois Anick Joseph said at an operations center in Port-au-Prince. “We want everybody to know that it is real.”
Here are the key messages from NHC regarding Category 4 #hurricane #Matthew at 5pm EDT Sunday https://t.co/T8bABTTyjI @NHCDirector @NOAA pic.twitter.com/tlGgHfTEEf
He said 1,300 shelters had been set up, with the capacity to hold 340,000 people.
One person was swept away by high waves on Saturday despite government warnings to stay out of the sea, Anick Joseph said.
The prime minister’s office issued a red alert warning for landslides, high waves and floods.
In Kingston, Jamaica, major roads and waterways flooded as the first bands from Matthew lashed the island. Cars stalled as rain-drenched drivers tried to push vehicles through streets that flooded within minutes of the downpour starting.
Matthew was about 270 miles (435 km) south-east of Kingston on Sunday afternoon and moving north-west at 5 mph (7 kph), with a turn to the north expected overnight. The hurricane center ranked it at Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
“Slow motion is almost always a bad thing for any land area impacted,” said John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist at the center. Matthew is expected to remain a powerful hurricane into Tuesday, the center said.
Matthew is the most powerful hurricane to form over the Atlantic since Felix in 2007.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, with precarious living conditions for most of its people making it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. More than 200,000 people were killed when a 7-magnitude earthquake struck the country in 2010.
The hurricane has also led to US authorities evacuating non-essential personnel from the navy base at Guantánamo Bay.
Matthew is expected to reach Cuba late on Monday, potentially making a direct hit on Guantánamo. Evacuated non-essential personnel included about 700 family members of those serving there.Matthew is expected to reach Cuba late on Monday, potentially making a direct hit on Guantánamo. Evacuated non-essential personnel included about 700 family members of those serving there.
Everyone remaining behind was being told to take shelter, said Julie Ann Ripley, a spokeswoman. There are about 5,500 people living on the base, including 61 men held at the detention center.Everyone remaining behind was being told to take shelter, said Julie Ann Ripley, a spokeswoman. There are about 5,500 people living on the base, including 61 men held at the detention center.
In Haiti and Jamaica, residents frantically stocked up on emergency supplies and authorities urged people to evacuate threatened areas.
Matthew is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history and briefly reached the top classification, category 5, becoming the strongest such hurricane since Felix in 2007.
The latest projections showed Matthew’s center likely to strike the south-western tip of Haiti on Monday. A hurricane warning was issued for the impoverished country, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
Deforestation has greatly increased the potential for devastating floods and landslides in Haiti and ramshackle homes and buildings are vulnerable to storms.
The forecast track of the storm would also carry Matthew into the Bahamas, with an outside chance of a brush with Florida, though that would be several days away.
“It’s too early to rule out what impacts, if any, would occur in the United States and Florida,” said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman at the US National Hurricane Center.
In Haiti, civil protection officials broadcast warnings of a coming storm surge and big waves, saying the country would be “highly threatened” and urging people to prepare emergency food and water kits. Emergency management authorities banned boating, particularly along the southern coastline.
In Jamaica, flooding temporarily closed the road linking the capital, Kingston, to its airport. Carl Ferguson, head of the marine police, said people were starting to heed calls to relocate from small islands and areas near rural waterways.
In the coastal town of Port Royal, officials urged residents to seek refuge in government shelters. In Kingston, people crowded supermarkets to buy bottled water, canned food, flashlights and batteries.
“It has been chaos from the morning,” said Melain Azan, owner of the Azan Super Centre. A shopper, Nardia Powell, said she was stocking up because she had learned a hard lesson when she was unprepared for Hurricane Ivan in 2004, as were many others. “So, I just want to be on the safe side, right?” she said.
As of 8am US ET, the storm was centered about 340 miles south-south-west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was travelling north-north-west at 5mph. Earlier, two deaths were blamed on the storm as it pushed through the eastern Caribbean and skimmed past the northern tip of South America.
Damage appeared minimal despite flooding in towns along Colombia’s La Guajira peninsula. Some officials were even grateful for the rain after a multi-year drought.
“Families that evacuated are returning to their homes,” said La Guajira governor Jorge Velez. “The dikes and wells filled up, the earth is moist, and this benefits agriculture in an area where it hasn’t rained for five years, benefiting the community.”