09 October,2016 08:10 AM IST | | Agencies
The full scale of the devastation in hurricane-hit rural Haiti became clear today as the death toll surged past 400, three days after Hurricane Matthew levelled huge swaths of the country’s south
A man sits in front of his home damaged by Hurricane Matthew, which claimed hundreds of lives, in Jeremie, Haiti on Friday. Pic/AFP
Jeremie: The full scale of the devastation in hurricane-hit rural Haiti became clear today as the death toll surged past 400, three days after Hurricane Matthew levelled huge swaths of the country's south.
As Matthew threatened the US coast, President Barack Obama urged Americans to mobilise in support of Haiti, where a million people were in need of assistance after the latest disaster to strike the western hemisphere's poorest nation.
While the capital and biggest city, Port-au-Prince, was largely spared, the south suffered devastation. Aerial footage from the hardest-hit towns showed a ruined landscape of metal shanties with roofs blown away and downed trees everywhere.
Brown mud covered the ground. Herve Fourcand, a senator for the Sud department, said several localities were still cut off by flooding and mudslides. A scene of desolation greeted visitors to Jeremie, a town of 30,000 people left inaccessible until Friday.
Four dead in Florida
Miami: The US marked its first four fatalities from Hurricane Matthew as the powerful storm lashed the Florida coast after killing more than 400 people in Haiti, officials said.
