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MEXICO CITY, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Hurricane Matthew has left at least 108 people dead in Haiti, Haitian Interior Minister, Francois Anick Joseph said Thursday.
However, this number is expected to rise as rescue teams reach the badly hit areas.
The strongest hurricane in the Caribbean for years swept through the poverty-stricken country on Tuesday, with winds reaching up to 230 km/h, flooding towns, downing power lines and cutting people off from accessing to food and money.
The country's civil protection bureau had confirmed 38 dead in the department of Grand'Anse, 34 in Ouest, 26 in Sud, three in Artibonite, three in Nippes, three in Sud-Est and one in Nord-Ouest.
The situation in the towns of Jeremie, Les Cayes, Port-Salut, Petite-Riviere de Nippes and Dame Marie is considered to be particularly critical.
According to CARE Haiti, 80 percent of the buildings in the town of Jeremie were destroyed.
Mercy Corps, a humanitarian NGO, said that 80 percent of banana crops in the region of Arcahaie were wiped out, leaving around 20,000 families without their livelihoods. Enditem
