Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, strengthened as it barreled toward the southeastern United States on Thursday after killing at least 339 people, mostly in Haiti, on its deadly northward march.
As Matthew blew through the northwestern Bahamas on Thursday en route to Florida’s Atlantic coast, it became an “extremely dangerous” hurricane carrying winds of 140 miles per hour (220 kph), the US National Hurricane Center said.
That made it a Category 4 hurricane and it was likely to remain so as it approached the United States, where it could either take direct aim at Florida or brush along the state’s coast throughFriday night, the center said.
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Florida as Hurricane Matthew strengthened and headed for the US Southeast, the White House said on Thursday.
Some 136 people were killed in Haiti, local officials said, and thousands were displaced after the storm flattened homes, uprooted trees and inundated neighborhoods earlier in the week.
As the storm passed about 25 miles (40 km) from the Bahamas capital of Nassau, howling gusts of wind brought down palms and other trees and flipped shingles off the rooftops of many houses. Bahamas Power and Light disconnected much of Nassau as Matthew bore down on the town.
