Vocabulary
- pounded the southern
- of rooftops
- projected rainfall of 15 to 25 inches
- that soaked her bed.
Hurricane Matthew Pummels Haiti With Fierce Winds and Rain
Hurricane Matthew pounded (=bateu) the southern coast of Haiti with devastating fury early Tuesday, wrecking homes and cutting off transportation, as a broad swath of the Caribbean was pummeled by fierce winds and rain.
The storm, a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall around 7 a.m. at Les Anglais, a town on the southwestern tip of Haiti, the western half of the island of Hispaniola.
“There is major destruction right now,” said Fidèle Nicolas, a civil protection coordinator in the Nippes department in southwestern Haiti. “Lots of rooftops (=telhados) are gone, but fatalities reported so far have been few.” Officials reported that some 400 homes had been destroyed, and at least one person killed.
The National Hurricane Center projected rainfall (=chuvas) of 15 to 25 inches in southern Haiti and in the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic, and it warned that as much as 40 inches of rain may fall in some areas.
In Les Cayes on the southern coast, the storm bent trees and cut off power. In Fond-des-Blancs, a bit to the east, a hospital posted a video showing lashing winds and rain.
Streets in Port-au-Prince, the capital, flooded on Tuesday and public transit was paralyzed. But the mass destruction that was feared in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, appeared not to have materialized. That could change as more flooding occurs, officials cautioned.
Melanie Jean Pierre, a 32-year-old street vendor, said she was riding out the storm in Port-au-Prince with her children. So far, she said, the only damage has come from a leak in the roof that soaked (=encharcava) her bed.
“In normal time, we can barely make a living,” she said. “If this hurricane hits as hard as they are predicting on the radio, I don’t know where I’m going to stay with my three children.”
More than four million children may be threatened by the hurricane, Unicef warned on Tuesday. “This is the worst storm Haiti has seen in decades, and the damage will no doubt be significant,” said Marc Vincent, the Unicef representative in Haiti. “Water-borne diseases are the first threat to children in similar situations. Our first priority is to make sure children have enough safe water.”
Haiti is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake; 55,000 people are living in shelters and cholera is endemic. The country’s southern coast is one of the poorest and most densely populated parts of the country.
The combination of a dangerous storm surge and large and destructive waves could raise water levels by seven to 11 feet above normal tide levels on the southern coast of Cuba; seven to 10 feet on the southern coast of Haiti; four to six feet on the northern coast of Cuba; and four to six feet in Jamaica, the hurricane center warned.
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