Hurricane Matthew weakened to a Category 1 storm Saturday, nearing the end of a four-day rampage that left a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean and up the Atlantic coast of Florida.
The death toll in Haiti, where Matthew first made landfall on Tuesday, rose to at least 400, officials said, as the scope of the devastation became clearer in the impoverished Caribbean country’s hard-hit south.
But by 1300 GMT, a weakening Matthew appeared to be nearing the end of its run, lashing the southern coast of South Carolina after leaving more than a million people without power in Florida and claiming five lives in the United States. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded the storm to a Category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds subsiding to a still dangerous 75 miles per hour.
It was located 20 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, a port city with a historic city center.
The NHC said hurricane and tropical storm conditions were expected in Georgia and South Carolina, but the bigger threat may be a storm surge of as much as nine feet in places.
“The combination of a dangerous storm surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the NHC said.
Authorities in South Carolina ordered thousands to evacuate inland to shelters, where people sprawled out in school gyms.
Torrential rain and strong winds lashed cities, bringing down trees, causing tall buildings to sway after nightfall and turning normally bustling population centers into ghost towns.
At least five people died in hurricane-related incidents in Florida — two women killed by falling trees, a third woman from a heart attack and a couple killed by carbon monoxide as they ran a generator in their home’s garage. Matthew damaged roofs at the Kennedy Space Center but spared Florida’s heavily populated south-central coast a direct hit. “The worst effects are still likely to come,” warned Governor Rick Scott, referring to expected flooding.
In St. Augustine — a former Spanish colony that calls itself the nation’s oldest city — roads were deserted Friday, many blocked by downed trees or flooded with ocean water and the city eerily empty under darkly menacing skies.
Mayor Nancy Shaver said up to half the population in vulnerable zones had refused to evacuate.

Source: Arab News