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Matthew marches on - Weakening system rakes Atlantic coast; US deaths at 10

Published:Saturday | October 8, 2016 | 12:00 AM
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An ambulance responding to a call passes by a truck damaged by a fallen tree from Hurricane Matthew on I-16 West, yesterday in Savannah, Georgia.
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A boy sits on a cliff formed by erosion from Hurricane Matthew on the beach at Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
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Residents Julia Schittko and Nathan Ogdon walk along flooded Water Street in Wilmington, North Carolina, yesterday as Hurricane Matthew moved into the Carolinas.
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A member of the Pooler Fire Department uses a boat to move residents of homes on Tappan Zee Drive after Hurricane Matthew caused flooding in Pooler, Georgia.
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Danielle Henry clears debris from outside her condo at Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
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Officials photograph sections of highway A1A that were washed out by Hurricane Matthew, in Flagler Beach, Florida.
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Yoleine Casimir stands in her destroyed house caused by Hurricane Matthew, in Jeremie, Haiti, yesterday. Aid has begun pouring into the hard-hit town, where thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed and many people were running low on food and facing an increased risk for cholera.
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Charleston, SC (AP):

A fast-weakening Hurricane Matthew continued its march along the Atlantic coast yesterday, lashing two of the South's most historic cities and some of its most popular resort islands, flattening trees, swamping streets and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands.

The storm was blamed for at least 10 deaths in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. In its long wake, it also left at least 470 dead in Haiti in one hard-hit district alone, according to officials, with around 900 dead overall and other stricken areas still unreachable four days after the disaster struck.

Matthew raked Georgia and South Carolina with torrential rain and stiff winds, and - for the first time in its run up the US coastline - its storm centre blew ashore, making landfall north of Charleston, near the town of McClellanville, where it caused serious flooding.

Up until then, the centre, or eye, mercifully stayed just far enough out at sea that coastal communities didn't feel the full force of Matthew's winds.

As the storm passed one city after another, the reaction was relief that things were nowhere near as bad as many feared.