PORT-AU-PRINCE/GUANTANAMO, CUBA: 

Hurricane Matthew churned toward the Bahamas and Florida’s east coast on Wednesday after killing 26 people in Haiti and prompting the hard-hit country to postpone a long-awaited presidential election. The hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, whipped Cuba and Haiti with 140 mile-per-hour (230 kph) winds and torrential rains on Tuesday, pummeling towns and destroying livestock, crops and homes. In the United States, millions of people were urged to evacuate the southeastern coast and Florida Governor Rick Scott warned residents to prepare for a possible direct hit that could be catastrophic. Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from the path of the Matthew, which caused severe flooding and killed four people in the Dominican Republic as well as at least 21 in Haiti. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola.

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