Hurricane Matthew: news and updates

Hurricane Matthew may have wandered out to sea, but the watery mess it left behind in North Carolina keeps getting worse and worse.

The hurricane dumped record amounts of rainfall on the state over the weekend, and floodwaters are still rising as rivers continue to fill up and overtop their banks. These floods have already killed 17 people in North Carolina and left thousands stranded in their homes or on their rooftops, waiting to be rescued.

While Hurricane Matthew caused modest damage in the United States, the devastation in Haiti has been absolutely horrifying.

At least 1,000 Haitians have died, according to a survey of local officials by Reuters, and tens of thousands have been left homeless after the storm flattened entire towns last week. The official death toll is still uncertain, and it could rise further in the days ahead, particularly with cholera now breaking out in some areas.

Hurricane Matthew has killed 19 people in the United States so far, left another 2.2 million without power, and caused record-breaking flooding in North Carolina.

While the storm was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Sunday and is heading out to the Atlantic Ocean, it’s leaving plenty of damage in its wake. North Carolina officials said that at least 887 people have had to be rescued so far, as rivers continue to overflow and flash floods catch many people unaware. Flooding is likely to last through the week:

Hurricane Matthew has been called the most powerful Atlantic storm in more than a decade.

It is expected to violently churn up the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina this weekend, after reportedly killing more than 800 people in Haiti early in the week.

Right now, Hurricane Matthew is traveling parallel to the coast of Florida, lashing the edge of the state with 100 mph winds and dangerous storm surges that are flooding land that’s usually dry.

The damage has been considerable already: 600,000 residents in Florida have been left without power, and one woman died of a heart attack after emergency officials couldn’t get to her through the storm.

“Are you leaving?” my next-door neighbor Sarah asked me.

It was Tuesday morning. I was sitting on the front porch of my home just north of Daytona Beach, Florida, admiring the 3-foot-tall flowers on the aloe vera plants.

The forecasts for Hurricane Matthew, now a Category 4, on the East Coast for Florida are growing dire. The hurricane is expected to scrape along the shore beginning Thursday night with 145 mile per hour winds. And the predictions for what it will bring are grim: storm surges along the coast of 6 to 9 feet; up to 12 inches of rain. Trees and power lines will be knocked down. Houses may get destroyed or severely damaged.

“This storm will kill you,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned Thursday.

Hurricane Matthew is looking to be the first major hurricane to hit Florida in a decade. It killed more than 100 people in Haiti. Officials in the state are taking on the difficult task of getting people to take the threat seriously enough to leave their homes.

Matt Drudge just made it a lot harder with a suggestion that the warnings are part of a left-wing conspiracy to convince Florida residents that climate change is real.

Hurricane Matthew is barreling toward Florida on Thursday as a massive Category 4 storm, and officials are telling 2 million people living in evacuation zones to get the hell out of the way. “This storm will kill you,” warned Gov. Rick Scott.

But in any dangerous storm, there are always people who won’t flee. They’ll recall a storm in the past that wasn’t so bad, or they simply don’t want to leave. Emergency managers have a whole series of best practices to cajole these folks to go.