© AP
The United States may have avoided the brunt of Hurricane Matthew's deadly rain and wind storms, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Southeast coast from receiving severe damage. After Hurricane Matthew rolled through the Caribbean and
killed nearly 900 people in Haiti, the storm continued along the US Southeastern coast, pummeling states like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina all weekend.
At least
19 people have been killed in the US by the hurricane across four Southeast states according to authorities. At least eight people were killed in North Carolina; three people were killed in Georgia; six people were killed in Florida; and at least two people were killed in South Carolina.
Local residents may have underestimated the severity of Hurricane Matthew, because it was downgraded to a
Category 3 just before hitting landfall in Florida on Friday. It was again downgraded to a
Category 1 when it hit South Carolina on Sunday. Regardless of its categorization, Hurricane Matthew still wreaked havoc in the areas it touched. "What those categories don't include is how water can kill,"
said North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in an interview with the
New York Times.
In North Carolina—the state to receive the worst parts of the storm in the US—more than 1,000 people had to be rescued on Sunday, and more than 3,000 people were moved to shelters. Nearly 770,000 people across North Carolina were left without power.
The storm has left more than 2 million businesses and homes without power along the Southeastern coast.
Comment: Update: Typhoon Haima kills at least 8 in the Philippines; tens of thousands of homes destroyed