Horror in rural Haiti as Hurricane Matthew death toll surges to 842

Four dead in Florida as as the Category 3 storm lashed the coast and blocks rescue

MIAMI,/ CHANTAL, HAITI: Hurricane Matthew's trail of destruction in Haiti stunned those viewing the aftermath on Friday, with the number of dead soaring to 842, tens of thousands made homeless and crops destroyed in the impoverished Caribbean nation's breadbasket region.



Information trickled in from remote areas that were cut off by the storm, and it became clear that at least 175 people died in villages clustered among the hills and coast of Haiti's fertile western tip.

Matthew 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 hilly farming village of Chantal, whose mayor said 86 people perished, mostly when trees crushed houses.

He said 20 more people were missing. "A tree fell on the house and flattened it, the entire house fell on us. I couldn't get out," said driver Jean-Pierre Jean-Donald, 27, who had been married for a year.

Women cook their meal in their partially destroyed house after Hurricane Matthew passes Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

"People came to lift the rubble, and then we saw my wife who had died in the same spot," Jean-Donald said, his young daughter by his side, crying "Mommy."

Dozens more were missing, many of them in the Grand'Anse region on the northern side of the peninsula.



Coastal town Les Anglais also lost "several dozen" people, the central government representative in the region, Louis-Paul Raphael, told Reuters. With fatalities mounting, various government agencies and committees differed on total deaths.

A Reuters count of deaths reported by civil protection and local officials put the toll at 842.

Haiti's central civil protection agency, which takes longer to collate numbers because it needs to visually confirm victims itself, said 271 people died as Matthew smashed through the 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.

Four dead in Florida as hurricane blocks rescue

The United States marked its first four fatalities from Hurricane Matthew as the Category 3 storm lashed the Florida coast, fire officials said Friday.

Large waves caused by Hurricane Matthew pound the Jacksonville Pier and was damaged by the storm, October 7, 2016 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. PHOTO: AFP

A 58-year-old woman suffered cardiac arrest in her home in central Florida's St Lucie County overnight, but high winds prevented fire officials from reaching her, a fire spokeswoman told AFP.



"We were unable to respond safely, and unfortunately she died," said St Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney.

In the early morning hours, rescuers also received a call about an 82-year-old man who was experiencing stroke-like symptoms and was having difficulty breathing.

"Again, we could not go because that's when the winds were high," Chaney said.

The man was taken in a personal vehicle to a nearby hospital, and fire officials learned later that he died, she said.