Haiti has suffered another tragedy that has left the country in a turmoil— The most powerful Caribbean hurricane in nearly a decade has left thousands of people displaced in Haiti, with officials struggling to reach the worst-hit areas.
Read BBC full report :
“Hurricane Matthew is said to have devastated parts of the country, where at least two people have died.
The storm has now moved off the north-eastern coast of Cuba towards Florida, where warnings are in place.
South Carolina is to start evacuating more than a million people.
Matthew, now a category three hurricane, is predicted to hit the US east coast later in the week.
The hurricane also hit Cuba, but early reports suggested it is impact was not as hard as in Haiti, where there were winds of 230km/h (145mph), heavy rain and dangerous storm surges.
At least 10,000 people were in shelters and there were reports of overcrowded hospitals suffering shortages of fresh water, Mourad Wahba, the UN special representative for Haiti, said.
The storm knocked down communications and blocked roads, hampering emergency efforts.
The collapse of a bridge cut off the only link between the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the southern part of the country, and officials admitted it would be difficult to reach the region.
Laura Sewel, an aid worker with Care Haiti, said: “The mobile network has also gone down. So what this means for us is that we’re out of contact with our staff right now which is quite difficult and the bridge going down means it will be harder to move materials.”
In the port town of Les Cayes, the situation was “catastrophic”, with streets flooded and many houses without roofs, deputy mayor Marie Claudette Regis Delerme said. She herself had to flee a meeting when a gust ripped off the building’s roof.
Images showed people walking in shoulder-high water, with relief workers saying that other coastal communities were also under water, including Les Anglais.”