A weakened Hurricane Matthew neared the end of its weeklong charge through Caribbean islands and along the U.S. Atlantic Coast on Saturday after killing nearly 1,000 people, most of them in Haiti.

The storm also flattened communities and wrecked agriculture in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Late Saturday, the hurricane’s center was 85 kilometers off Cape Fear, North Carolina, moving slowly away from the coast in a twisting path that was taking it well east of any populated areas. Sustained winds measured 120 kilometers per hour — half as strong as they were a week ago — with the storm steadily diminishing in strength.

Serious flooding was reported in many areas along a 950-kilometer stretch of the U.S. East Coast, from Florida north to North Carolina. President Barack Obama declared states of emergency in four states, where the storm killed at least 10 people.

Matthew was the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. coast in nine years and one of the longest-lasting major hurricanes on record, but damage to property was much less than had been predicted.

Casualties still rising

The hurricane was at its most powerful when it ravaged the Caribbean nearly a week ago, with winds of nearly 235 kilometers per hour. Although more than 900 deaths have been reported in Haiti, many areas of that impoverished country have not yet been thoroughly surveyed.

The U.S. military has been deploying aid to Haiti by air and sea — food and medicine as well as equipment, including heavy-lift helicopters, bulldozers, water-delivery vehicles and mobile operating rooms.

As Matthew passed over Haiti, it also raked the eastern tip of Cuba. Few reports of casualties or damage have emerged since Tuesday, but the island nation is expected to need massive quantities of relief supplies.

The Dominican Republic, which lies on the eastern half of Hispaniola, bordering Haiti, also felt Hurricane Matthew’s power. The storm later coursed through the Bahamas before traveling north along the U.S. East Coast, slowly weakening but remaining just offshore until it finally made landfall Saturday in South Carolina.

Haiti hit hardest

The catastrophic damage this week in Haiti was made worse because the impoverished country is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2010. Thousands of people who have been living in flimsy shelters since the earthquake saw those washed away by the hurricane, which also destroyed a bridge that was the only link between a large portion of southern Haiti and the rest of the country.

Estimates of the death toll in Haiti reached 900 early Saturday and continued to rise throughout the day. Officials warned the list of casualties would most likely grow, perhaps significantly, as rescuers reach remote villages.

Video images from Haiti showed entire landscapes of metal shanties that lost their roofs in the winds and driving rains, along with downed trees and fields of mud from overflowing rivers.

CARE Haiti director Jean-Michel Vigreux said the city of Jeremie, population 30,000, had been “destroyed.”

The International Red Cross issued an emergency appeal for $6.9 billion in relief aid for Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

350,000 need help

The United Nations said more than 350,000 people in southern Haiti needed help urgently.  Additionally, aid agencies and health workers voiced fears Saturday of a sharp increase in cholera cases.

 

 

Residents and aid workers in eastern Cuba were still assessing storm damage. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but workers from a Roman Catholic charity organization spent nearly 16 hours trying to reach Baracoa, a community of 82,000 residents. Locals said the trip from Guantanamo to Baracoa normally takes just over two hours.

The Miami Herald reported that one local church official found Baracoa with ruined roads, damaged communications and neighborhoods near the coast reduced to rubble.

WATCH: video footage of devastation in Les Cayes, Haiti
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