FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Hurricane Matthew tore into Haiti's southern coast early Tuesday, ripping off rooftops, toppling trees and flooding streets and agricultural fields in a country still recovering from a devastating earthquake six years ago.
The dangerous Category 4 storm, the strongest Caribbean hurricane in nearly a decade, was carrying winds of 145 mph when it made landfall at 6 a.m. near the town of Les Anglais, on the southwestern tip of Haiti, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Many residents hunkered down in flimsy shacks that offered little protection from the howling wind, heavy rains and battering storm surges.
Authorities had not yet determined the full scale of the damage. But Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection agency, said more than 10 towns were flooded and a number of homes and boats destroyed. Landslides and downed trees were hampering access to many communities.
There were also reports of one person killed in Haiti and four more in neighboring Dominican Republic, bringing the suspected death toll on the island of Hispaniola to at least seven. A fisherman drowned in heavy seas and another went missing as the storm approached Haiti over the weekend, officials said.
Officials in Haiti spent Monday trying to persuade residents in vulnerable coastal communities and shanty towns around the capital, Port-au-Prince, to move into emergency shelters set up in churches and schools. But many were too afraid to leave their homes, in case they were robbed.
Some sought shelter only after the worst of the storm hit, sloshing through knee-high water and debris-strewn streets in the pelting rain.
"There was panic in the cities of Jeremie and Les Cayes," Alta Jean-Baptiste was quoted as saying Haiti's Le Nouvelliste newspaper. "The population was distraught because of the rise of the water."
A video filmed in Les Cayes showed palm trees whipped by fierce winds. "Pray for us," a voice is heard yelling.
In Port Salut, Jenniflore Desrosiers huddled with her family in a leaky cinderblock house.
"The winds are making so many bad noises," she told The Associated Press. "We're just doing our best to stay calm."
Aid agencies warned of more danger ahead. Between 15 and 25 inches of rain were forecast over hills that are largely denuded and prone to flash floods and mudslides, and the National Hurricane Center warned that as much as 40 inches could fall in some places.
Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest country, is still reeling from the 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people, and the deadly cholera outbreak that followed. Tens of thousands of people live in tents and other makeshift housing.
As Matthew bore down on the country, government officials and international aid agencies were anxious to avoid a repeat of the confusion, waste and duplication that marred the response to those crises.
"I know from the international community, there was a pretty impressive response from as early as Friday, when it started looking like this was on the radar screen," said Chris Skopec, of the Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps. "Normally I think we might wait a couple of days to see the direction (the storm) was going to go _ it's a very unpredictable weather pattern. But because everybody is a bit hypersensitive to how vulnerable Haiti is and is really committed to improving on past response efforts, there was a lot of mobilization of resources and supplies and pre-positioning of teams."
The storm hit at a particularly difficult time for Haiti, just as farmers in the south were about to start harvesting plantains, a staple, and as authorities were preparing for a long-delayed presidential election on Sunday.
By Tuesday afternoon, the storm was headed north toward Cuba at a slow 10 mph and was expected to reach the Bahamas overnight. Meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center said some fluctuations in intensity were possible, but Matthew was expected to remain a powerful hurricane at least through Wednesday night.
In the U.S., states of emergency were declared Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
"If Hurricane Matthew directly impacts Florida, there could be massive destruction which we haven't seen since Hurricane Andrew devastated Miami-Dade County in 1992," Florida Scott. Gov. Rick Scott said.
