Haiti, Jamaica prepare for hurricane

Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade, churned towards Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba yesterday on a path forecasters said could take it to the eastern United States.

At 0900 GMT "powerful Hurricane Matthew" was slowly moving northwestward from the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela at a speed of five miles (seven kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

Briefly a furious Category 5 storm at the top of the 1-5 Saffir-Simpson scale late Friday, Matthew has now weakened into a still dangerous Category 4 hurricane.

That makes it the strongest Caribbean storm since Hurricane Felix in 2007.

On its current forecast track Matthew's center will today glance past Jamaica -- dumping heavy rain on the island -- as it makes landfall on Haiti.

The storm is then expected to continue north, tearing across southern and eastern Cuba between today and tomorrow as it heads towards the Bahamas.

Matthew was located 345 miles (555 kilometers) south-southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, and nearly same distance southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, the NHC said at 0900 GMT.

The hurricane is forecast to dump 15 to 25 inches of rain over southern Haiti, "with possible isolated maximum amounts of 40 inches."

The storm is also expected to drop 10 to 20 inches (25-50 cm) of rain over eastern Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and eastern Cuba, "with possible isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches (64 centimeters)."

"This rainfall will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," it warned.

Matthew was packing winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts.

Current weather models showed it could eventually affect the US mainland.

"It is too soon to rule out possible hurricane impacts from Matthew in Florida," the NHC said.