Hurricane Matthew pummels southwest Haiti, threatens Cuba

World Today

Hurricane Matthew made landfall around dawn on Haiti’s southern peninsula, a largely rural area where many people live in flimsy wooden shacks, no match for a storm with winds of some 240 kilometers an hour (149 miles per hour).

CCTV America’s Michael Voss reports.

 

This Category 4 hurricane is also producing torrential rain, up to 100 centimeters (39 inches) predicted on higher ground producing mudslides, while huge waves and storm surges are also battering the coast.

It’s too early to tell the full extent of the damage, or how many people will die in the path of the storm over Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic.

Hurricane Matthew is the largest Atlantic storm in almost a decade. The NASA pictures show just how wide an area it covers, with the eye of the storm clearly visible.

Now Matthew is heading towards Cuba. Already its outer reaches are causing storm surges along Cuba’s eastern coast. This happened in the town of Siboney, which was badly damaged four years ago in Hurricane Sandy.

Some half a million Cubans have been evacuated into shelters and moved to safer ground.


Paul Williams discusses Hurricane Matthew

For more on the Hurricane Matthew as it bears down on Haiti, CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke with Paul Williams, meteorologist at Accuweather.