On October 7, 2016, Hurricane Matthew’s powerful winds and torrential rain left over one million people without power and four dead in Florida. This tropical cyclone has lashed the coast with 185 mph winds, prompting widespread evacuations.
In preparation for this monstrous storm, 3500 National Guard troops were deployed for assistance and more than 1.5 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate. Over 20,000 people are currently residing in shelters.
Before travelling 3000 miles along the Atlantic coast to the United Sates, Matthew ravaged the Caribbean, leaving countries like Haiti and Cuba in catastrophic ruin. Downing trees and flooding streets, Matthew is the strongest hurricane to hit the nation in more than 50 years.
Officials claim over 300 deaths in Haiti in relation to the hurricane, with at least 350,000 people still in need of immediate medical assistance, causing further damage to the country’s infrastructure as Haiti is still in the process of recovering from the 2010 cholera outbreak and earthquake.
In Cuba, over 377,000 people were evacuated as many houses were washed away or had their roofs blown away by the storm.
But the worse seems to have passed as the strength of the hurricane has since weakened from a category 4 hurricane to a category 2 hurricane with maximum winds of 110 mph.
Nonetheless, as the storm is moving north, Florida and its neighboring states Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have declared states of emergency, with dire warnings from officials that Hurricane Matthew is expected to have surges of potentially 11 feet.
Curfews have been set in parts of these states to keep the roads clear due to flood warnings. Safety precautions are not being taken lightly. President Obama has committed to ensuring the country is ready with the necessary resources in order to respond to the impact of Hurricane Matthew.
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