Haiti has begun three days of national mourning for those killed by Hurricane Matthew, which devastated the south of the country. The government said at least 900 people are believed to have died. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and some 350,000 people need aid.
Cholera is a major fear, with several deaths reported, as are food supplies, given the destruction of crops. Matthew went on to barrel up the south-eastern coast of the US, killing 10. It caused extensive flooding, power cuts and damage to buildings in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
The National Hurricane Center said, now the Category 1 Matthew was about 30km off the coast of Cedar Island in North Carolina and heading north-east, further out to sea, at 25 kilometre per hour. Matthew passed directly through Haiti’s Tiburon peninsula – encompassing Haiti’s entire southern coast – driving the sea inland and flattening homes with winds of up to 230 kilometre per hour and torrential rain.
According to Stephane Rolland, Regional Co-ordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), the international aid response in Haiti was now beginning to pick up. But the challenges remain immense, given the difficulties with infrastructure and reaching remote areas.
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