MIAMI // Residents of the US state of Florida scrambled to escape the path of Hurricane Matthew on Thursday as president Barack Obama declared a state of emergency.
The storm was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane as it moved north-west towards Florida from the Bahamas.
It came as the death toll in Haiti rose to at least 136 from a previous figure of 23, local officials said. This took the total dead to 140 with four people also killed in the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, a second hurricane formed on Thursday south of Bermuda, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.
Nicole was expected to turn toward the north or north-west later in the day, and possibly strengthen further over the next 24 hours or so.
Matthew, the worst storm to hit the Caribbean in nearly a decade, forced the closure of airports in the Bahamas and cruise ships were rerouted from the tourist destination.
“Seriously consider now moving to higher grounds,” Bahamian prime minister Perry Christie told southern coastal communities before the storm hit.
The hurricane’s powerful winds began to be felt along Florida’s south-east coast on Thursday afternoon.
“This hurricane is life-threatening. Listen to your local officials and follow evacuation notices,” said Florida governor Rick Scott.
US president Barack Obama warned Americans in the storm’s path to take the threat seriously.
“We hope for the best, but we want to prepare for the worst,” he said. He ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts to deal with the devastating storm, authorising the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
Matthew ran into Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday but was later downgraded to three – on a scale of five – by the NHC.
The hurricane was expected to move “very close to the east coast of the Florida peninsula” on Thursday through Friday, the NHC said.
“Everyone in our state must prepare now for a direct hit,” said Mr Scott, as evacuation orders were issued.
Florida schools and universities closed for the rest of the week, while authorities were distributing sandbags for doorways, and shop shelves were bare. “We’re not really afraid: Florida has been through this thing for years,” said Rick Basel, 63, a retiree loading his car with food and water to last three or four days.
Farther north in South Carolina, governor Nikki Haley ordered the evacuation of several coastal counties – with more than a million people affected.
News footage showed bumper-to-bumper jams on motorways and tensions were high as some petrol stations ran out of fuel.
As Matthew headed north-west, Haiti and Cuba began the grim task of assessing the storm’s toll.
Haiti’s presidential election, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed. Interim president Jocelerme Privert called the situation catastrophic. Matthew has knocked out a key bridge providing access to the south where the storm made landfall. The severe flooding has also sparked a resurgence of cholera, with eight cases already reported.
The United Nations office for coordinating humanitarian affairs said half of Haiti’s population of 11 million was expected to be affected.
At least 350,000 people in Haiti – where thousands have lived in tents since the massive earthquake in 2010 – need immediate assistance, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s office said.
The US military said on Wednesday that it was sending helicopters, an aircraft carrier and troops to assist the aid effort in Haiti – which had not been hit by a Category 4 storm in 52 years.
In Cuba, where about 1.3 million people were removed, there were no reported fatalities but four cities in the east were cut off because roads were blocked by large chunks of rock hurled by the storm.
Officials reported flooding and waves up to five metres in eastern coastal villages. Baracoa, the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, was destroyed.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters
