“Dangerous” Hurricane Matthew began bearing down on Haiti as “life-threatening” rain, wind and storm surges started to spread over portions of the country, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm remained a category four, with maximum sustained winds at 145 mph
The storm is the strongest to make landfall in Haiti in more than a half-century.
The storm’s latest track has led the government of the Bahamas to issue a hurricane warning for the Central Bahamas, including Long Island, Exuma, Rum Cay, San Salvador, and Cat Island, and a Hurricane Watch for the northwestern Bahamas, including the Abacos, Andros Island, Berry Islands, Bimini, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama Island, and New Providence.
That is in addition to already-issued hurricane warnings in Jamaica, Haiti, the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma, and Las Tunas and the southeastern Bahamas, including the Inaguas, Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay, and Ragged Island.
The storm is set to move near eastern Cuba late Tuesday night and move near or over portions of the southeastern and central Bahamas Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles.
“Matthew is a dangerous category 4 hurricane,” the National Hurricane Center said in its 48-hour outlook.
Hurricane conditions were expected to first reach Haiti tonight, eastern Cuba Tuesday, the southeastern Bahamas late Tuesday, and the central Bahamas on Wednesday.
Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of Jamaica and along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic within the warning area soon.
That meant significant rainfall around the Caribbean region, with between 15 and 25 inches in southern Haiti and the southwestern Dominican Republic, and 40 inches in parts of Cuba and Haiti and parts of Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
That could lead to life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in areas including Haiti, the southwestern Dominican Republic and eastern Cuba.