US misses the worst of Hurricane Matthew but Haiti mourns nearly 900 dead

Hurricane Matthew but still causes five deaths in Florida and flooding in Georgia and South Carolina as US and France pledge aid for Haiti.

A tree felled by Hurricane Matthew in Savannah, Georgia on October 8, 2016. Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA // A fast-weakening Hurricane Matthew continued its sweep along the Atlantic coast of the US on Saturday, lashing two of the South’s most historic cities and some of its most popular resort islands, flattening trees, and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Now reduced to category 1 strength, the storm was blamed for at least five deaths in Florida. In Haiti, the death toll rose to almost 900 but the head of the country’s civil protection services, Marie-Alta Jean Baptiste, said early on Saturday that the number was likely to rise as it was still impossible to reach some stricken areas four days after the hurricane struck.

Pledges of aid have flooded in, with the United States announcing it was sending a Navy ship, the USS Mesa Verde, whose 300 Marines will add to the 250 personnel and nine helicopters already ordered to deploy to Haiti.

France announced it was sending 60 troops, with 32 tonnes of humanitarian supplies and water purification equipment.

California-based charity International Relief Teams said it was donating $7 million in medical supplies with international organisations MAP International and Hope for Haiti.

Matthew raked the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina with torrential rain and stiff winds and made landfall north of Charleston, near the town of McClellanville, where it caused serious flooding.

Until then, the eye of the hurricane had stayed just far enough out at sea for coastal communities to avoid the full force of the wind. As the storm passed one city after another, there was relief that Mathew had left less devastation than many feared.

“We are blessed that we didn’t have a direct hit,” said the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott.

The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) predicted hurricane and tropical storm conditions in Georgia and South Carolina, but the bigger threat may be a storm surge of as much as two metres in places.

“The combination of a dangerous storm surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the NHC said.

The weather agency forecast a danger of “life-threatening” flooding during the next 36 hours along the coast from Georgia to North Carolina.

Millions of Americans were subject to evacuation orders and curfews were slapped on cities as the lethal storm powered north after storming through Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas.

President Barack Obama has declared federal states of emergency in Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

In Jacksonville, Florida, nearly half of the 850,000 residents had heeded the evacuation order. The rain stopped on Saturday morning, and there were fallen trees and signs of flooding but no major damage.

But in the nearby town of St Augustine — a former Spanish colony that calls itself the nation’s oldest city — there was “a lot of damage,” said Commander Chuck Mulligan, spokesman for the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office

Officials had closed all access to the city for safety reasons.

Water several feet deep also flowed down the streets of the historic city of Savannah, Georgia and in Charlston, South Carolina was hit by some of the highest tides ever recorded. In Florida, two women were killed by falling trees, a third woman had a heart attack and a couple were killed by carbon monoxide as they ran a generator in their garage.

By late morning, Matthew — by some measures the most powerful hurricane to hit the Caribbean and the US in a decade — was just barely a hurricane, with winds of 120 kph, down from 233 kph when the storm roared into Haiti.

Among the cities bracing for its effects later in the day were Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. From there, the storm was expected to veer out to sea and loop back around through the Bahamas and toward Florida again, though as a barely noticeable wave.

North Carolina Governor. Pat McCrory warned people not to let their guard down just because Matthew was losing steam.

As the hurricane began making its exit, it appeared that forecasters had got it right. Matthew stayed near the middle of the “cone of uncertainty ” marked on the NHC map.