The number of people killed by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti rose to at least 572 on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, as information trickled in from remote areas that were cut off by the storm, officials said.With fatalities rising quickly, different government agencies and committees differed on the total death toll.
A Reuters count of deaths reported by civil protection and local officials confirmed 572 people had lost their lives. Haiti's central civil protection agency, which takes longer to collate numbers, said 271 people died as Matthew smashed through the tip of Haiti's western peninsula on Tuesday with 145 mile-per-hour (233 kph) winds and torrential rain. Some 61,500 people were in shelters, the agency said.
The storm pushed the sea into fragile coastal villages, some of which are only now being contacted. At least three towns reported dozens of fatalities, including the inland community of Chantal, whose deputy mayor said 90 people perished, without giving details. At least 89 more were missing, many of them in the Grand'Anse region area in southern Haiti.
Coastal town Les Anglais lost "several dozen" people, the central government representative in the region, Louis-Paul Raphael told Reuters. Les Anglais was the first place in Haiti that Matthew
reached, as a powerful Category 4 storm before it moved north, lost strength and lashed central Florida on Friday.Hours before the hurricane landed in Haiti, Les Anglais' mayor told Reuters residents were fleeing for their lives as the ocean rushed into their homes. With cellphone networks down and roads flooded by sea and river water, aid has been slow to reach towns and villages
around the peninsula. Instead, locals have been helping each other."My house wasn't destroyed, so I am receiving people, like it's a temporary shelter," said Bellony Amazan in the town of Cavaillon, where around a dozen people died.
Amazan said she had no food to give people."I have nothing, my hands are empty," said Kimberly Janvier in the town, where dozens of residents staged an angry protest on Thursday demanding more government help.
Obama says Matthew 'still dangerous'
US president Barack Obama said southern Florida's population centers had dodged the worst of Hurricane Matthew on Friday, although it remained "dangerous" with storm surges further up the coast a real concern.
"The bigger concern at this point is not just hurricane force winds, but storm surge," Obama said in the Oval Office, stressing the threat to the Jacksonville area in northern Florida, up as far as Georgia.
"I emphasise this is still a really dangerous hurricane," Obama said after receiving a briefing from aides including Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Obama warned that residents of America's southeastern states should not let down their guard.
"Pay attention to what your local officials are telling you," he said. "We can always replace property. We cannot replace lives."
He recalled the lessons of Hurricane Sandy, which slammed into New Jersey and New York City in 2012, leaving 200 dead and causing tens of billions of dollars in damages.
"Initially people thought 'this doesn't look as bad as we thought,' and then suddenly you get a massive storm surge and a lot of people were severely affected."
On Friday he warned that "the potential for storm surge, flooding, loss of life and severe property damage continues to exist."
"People continue to need to follow the instructions of their local officials over the course of the next 24, 48, 72 hours."
Obama said he was also tracking the damage done in Haiti, "one of the poorest countries in the world."
(With agency inputs)
