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'Get Out Now' Governor Warns Floridians as Killer Storm Matthew Gathers
Strength

by VOA News

   Forecasters expect Hurricane Matthew to gain strength as it moves
   through the northern Bahamas on Thursday and heads for the southeastern
   U.S. state of Florida.

   The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Matthew had sustained winds of
   205 kilometers per hour Thursday morning as the center of the storm
   approached Andros Island and Nassau. It warned of a dangerous storm
   surge and the possibility of at least 20 centimeters of rain.

   The forecast track had Matthew going directly up the east coast of
   Florida on Friday after strengthening from a Category 3 to a Category 4
   storm.

   "Get out now," Florida Governor Rick Scott told people who live along
   his state's coast during a news conference Wednesday. "It could be the
   decision between life or death."

   Nearly 2 million people live in areas of Florida that are under
   voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders.

   Scott warned that people who were planning to leave should do so
   immediately, as highways are expected to be clogged with traffic as the
   storm edges closer.

   WATCH: Hurricane Matthew devastation in photos

   Strongest in decades

   The hurricane is reported to have killed at least 26 people in Haiti
   and the Dominican Republic after slamming the island as a Category 4
   hurricane on Tuesday, the strongest storm to make landfall in Haiti in
   52 years.

   U.S. Navy Admiral Kurt Tidd, commander of U.S. forces in the Caribbean,
   told reporters Wednesday that the United States is sending nine
   military helicopters in response to the Haitian government's request
   for help.

   Some of the helicopters will be equipped for search-and-rescue missions
   and others for transporting supplies.

   Haiti has postponed its presidential election, scheduled for Sunday,
   because many schools and churches that were to serve as polling
   stations are being used to shelter thousands of displaced people.

   VOA Creole reporter Jean-Hernst Eliscar said many houses in the
   southern city of Les Cayes are flooded and have no roofs.

   Authorities in Port-au-Prince have not yet been able to assess the
   damage fully because a washed-out bridge has cut off access to the most
   affected southern areas. Senior government officials said they will
   assess the damage in person when floods recede and conditions permit.

   People walk down the streets next to destroyed houses after Hurricane
   Matthew passes Jeremie, Haiti, Oct. 5, 2016.

   A boy stands inside a church after it was damaged by Hurricane Matthew
   in Saint-Louis, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016.

   The U.S. Agency for International Development's Dave Herman said the
   U.S. government is working "very diligently" with the Catholic Relief
   Services and the Red Cross to ensure relief aid is distributed to
   Haiti's most vulnerable people.

   Jean Claude Finole, Oxfam's influence program director in Haiti, said
   Thursday at least 10,000 people were displaced and in need of aid.

   "Our first response will concentrate on saving lives by providing safe
   water and hygiene kits to avoid the spread of cholera," he said.

   Obama urges people to help

   In Washington, President Barack Obama called on people to help
   hurricane victims in Haiti by donating to the USAID Center for
   International Disaster Information ([1]www.cidi.org). "Find out how you
   can help make life a little bit easier for those who didn't have a lot
   to begin with," Obama said.

   WATCH: Obama on hurricane damage in Haiti

   Mourad Wahba, U.N. deputy special representative for Haiti, said
   Hurricane Matthew has caused the biggest humanitarian crisis there
   since the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 225,000 people.

   Hurricane Matthew also stormed through Cuba's sparsely populated
   eastern tip Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Dozens of homes were
   destroyed and hundreds of others damaged in the city of Baracoa.

   State of emergency
   Georgia has declared states of emergency in 13 coastal counties.

   South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley ordered a quarter-million people
   closest to the storm's track to leave their homes for safer locations
   inland, and warned more than 1 million others to prepare to evacuate.

   Matthew is the strongest hurricane to tear through the Atlantic and
   Caribbean Sea since Hurricane Felix in 2007.
   [VOA's Creole Service contributed to this report ]

References

   1. http://www.cidi.org/