Hurricane Matthew Death Toll in US Rises to 15

Haiti’s southern city of Jeremie suffered “complete destruction”, with 80 percent of the buildings leveled, relief agencies said.

The good news is that Matthew is weakening: The storm was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Saturday, and its maximum winds, which had been measured at 140 miles per hour days ago, are now at a still-dangerous 75 miles per hour – a speed that the storm maintained through two updates from the National Weather Service Saturday.

Mr Obama warned that the potential for storm surge, flooding, loss of life and severe property damage “continues to exist” and that people need to be prepared in the days to come.

Hurricane Matthew Loss Contribution by County in Florida, Georgia and SC.

The storm was blamed for at least four deaths in the USA, all in Florida.

The storm is blamed for at least four deaths in the state.

Its maximum sustained winds blew at 75 miles per hour (120 kph), down from 130 miles per hour (210 kph) at full strength.

Charleston County Sheriff’s spokesman Maj. Haley said the email provides a link to get the update.

“While the storm is still on, don’t go outside”, Scott said. He warned residents might hear a small boom.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said late Friday at a news conference that the storm could drop life-threatening amounts of rain over much of the coast.

The UN said it expected the number of dead to rise even further.

The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Matthew has made landfall in SC.

According to officials, a woman in her 60s died Friday in Volusia County after a tree fell on her while she was trying to feed her animals.

According to humanitarian organization UNICEF, up to 80 percent of homes in the south of the country have been damaged, this on top of the 55,000 already homeless from the massive 2010 quake.

The firm’s estimate covers storm surge and wind damage, which it anticipates will account for 90 percent of insurance claims related to the storm.

Five new deaths have been reported in the Southeast in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Though they hoped to stay, their plans changed when the storm’s track shifted west, and harsher conditions were forecast for North Carolina’s southeast corner. The storm could bring flash floods and a surge of between six and nine feet, forecasters say.

A nation in mourning: Houses are destroyed as Hurricane Matthew passes Corail in Haiti, killing more than 500 people and leaving thousands homeless.

But tiny Haiti bore the brunt of the tragedy as it announced the deaths of nearly 900 people on today.

Officials said emergency responders have carried out multiple water rescues from cars and homes. “I couldn’t get out”, said driver Jean-Pierre Jean-Donald, 27, who had been married for a year. The majority, 271 people, died in Haiti, said Civil Protection Service spokesman Joseph Edgard Celestin.

A woman who answered the phone at the center would not comment Sunday afternoon.

SC has recorded its first fatality related to Hurricane Matthew and its aftermath.

“Now is the time we ask for prayer”, Gov. Nikki Haley said, bowing her head. More details weren’t immediately available.

That death brings to 15 the number of weather-related deaths in the USA from Matthew. Four died in Georgia. Some were killed by falling trees, others by carbon monoxide fumes from a generator.

Haley says almost 750,000 customers remain without power in the state, down from the peak of about 850,000.

Slightly more than 1 million customers in Florida remain in the dark in the aftermath of the storm, which moved on to the Carolinas early Saturday as a weaker but still large Category 1 storm.

The total USA death toll from the storm stands at 14. Most deaths are thought to have occurred in the southwest region.

A weakened Hurricane Matthew churned just off the coast of the USA states of Georgia and South Carolina Saturday, threatening deadly floods after leaving more than a million people without power in Florida and claiming five lives. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded the storm to a Category 2 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity as its sustained winds dropped to 110 miles per hour. A hurricane warning is in effect from Surf City south to the SC line.

The mayor of Georgia’s ocean-fronting community of Tybee Island described Matthew as the worst storm to hit the area since 1898.

Hurricane warnings early on Saturday extended up the Atlantic coast from northeast Florida through Georgia and SC and into North Carolina.

Police in Fayetteville, North Carolina urged motorists to stay off the roads on Saturday as they shared a video of a search and rescue operation in the city, devastated by Hurricane Matthew.