Hurricane Matthew has reached Haiti threatening western areas with high winds, rain and storm surges. – BBC

The hurricane is regarded as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent years. Currently it is a Category Four storm which toned down from a much more dangerous Category Five storm.

According to the US National Hurricane Center, Haiti was “getting everything a major hurricane can throw at them”.

“We’ve already seen deaths. People who were out at sea. There are people who are missing. They are people who didn’t respect the alerts. They’ve lost their lives,” said Interim Haitian President Jocelerme Privert

Hurricane “category” breakdown (source: BBC)

Category one: sustained winds of 74-95mph (119-153 km/h); some damage and power cuts
Category two: winds of 96-110mph (154-177 km/h); extensive damage
Category three: winds of 111-129mph (178-208 km/h); well-built homes suffer major damage
Category four: winds of 130-156mph (209-251 km/h); severe damage to well-built homes, most trees snapped or uprooted
Category five: winds of 157 mph (252 km/h) or higher; high percentage of homes destroyed, area uninhabitable for weeks or months

Hurricane Matthew strengthened to a rare Category five storm on Friday, making it the first Atlantic hurricane to reach that strength in nine years.

.@NOAA‘s GOES East satellite shows Hurricane #Matthew moving through the Caribbean Sea over the last 3 days. More at https://t.co/fEhPQiGMBL pic.twitter.com/YLPgoILIHQ

— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) October 3, 2016

The storm triggered heavy flooding along Colombia’s La Guajira peninsula over the weekend and brought storm surges that soaked streets across Jamaica’s coastline.

@DeborahWAPA Red sprites taken last night while Hurricane Mathew was near Aruba and Colombia. pic.twitter.com/lBvZj20rZS

— Frankie Lucena (@frankie57pr) October 1, 2016

Source: BBC

Later the hurricane toned down slightly to a Category four storm over the weekend. However the hurricane is still en-route to wreak havoc throughout the Caribbean.

Reports say that Eastern Cuba and Western Haiti could see possible rainfall of up to 20 inches while Jamaica may experience up to 15 inches of rain in some places.

The International Space Station footage

Cameras outside the space station captured dramatic views of major Hurricane Matthew as the orbital complex flew 250 miles above (speed x4). pic.twitter.com/nfAQuw2OQC

— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) October 3, 2016

View of Hurricane Matthew from the International Space Station

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