Les Cayes/Port-au-Prince - Fears have mounted in Haiti as Hurricane Matthew edges closer, bringing 230km/h winds and life-threatening rain that could wreak havoc in the Caribbean nation, where some 2000 people in one coastal town refused to evacuate.
Matthew's centre is expected to near southwestern Haiti and Jamaica late on Monday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
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Caribbean braces for hurricane Matthew
Caribbean nations in the path of hurricane Matthew prepare for the worst as the fiercest storm in years threatens widespread damage.
Crawling towards Haiti's Les Cayes, Jamaica and Cuba at 7km/h, the storm could be just as slow leaving, giving its winds and torrential rain more time to cause damage.
"We are worried about the slow pace of Hurricane Matthew, which will expose Haiti to much more rain, and the country is particularly vulnerable to flooding," said Ronald Semelfort, director of Haiti's national meteorology centre.
The storm comes at a bad time for Haiti. The poorest country in the Americas is set to hold a long-delayed election next Sunday.
Haiti is vulnerable to disasters due to a combination of weak government and precarious living conditions. More than 200,000 people were killed when a 7-magnitude earthquake struck in 2010.
"Even in normal times, when we have rain, we have flooding that sometimes kills people," said Semelfort, comparing Matthew to 1963's Hurricane Flora, which swept away entire villages killing thousands in Haiti.
In Jamaica too, officials were scrambling to protect the vulnerable, while residents boarded up windows and flocked to supermarkets to stock up on food, water, torches and beer.
In Cuba, which Matthew is due to reach on Tuesday, evacuation operations where well underway, with people voluntarily moving their belongings into neighbours' houses, or heading to shelters.
Some even found cliffside caves they said were the safest places to ride out storms.
Matthew briefly reached maximum Category 5 status Friday, making it the strongest Atlantic hurricane in almost a decade.
The latest National Hurricane Center projection had Matthew reaching the southwestern tip of Haiti late Monday, but tropical storm conditions could reach Jamaica and Haiti as soon as late Sunday and eastern Cuba early Monday. The storm was expected to remain a powerful and dangerous hurricane into Tuesday, forecasters said.
"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the hurricane centre warned.
Matthew could dump up to 63 centimetres of rain over much of southern Haiti, with "isolated maximum amounts of 100 centimetres", the hurricane centre warned. Eastern Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and eastern Cuba could see 25 centimetres to 50 centimetres of rain, with 63 centimetres in isolated areas. In addition, storm surges in the region could cause catastrophic flooding.
But Haitian officials said about 2000 residents of the La Savane neighbourhood of Les Cayes refused to heed government calls to move out of their homes on the waters edge, despite being just a few kilometres from where the centre of the hurricane is forecast to make landfall.
Matthew was about 415km southeast of Jamaica's Kingston on Sunday night, with a turn to the north expected overnight. The hurricane centre ranked it at Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
Some streets were already flooded in Les Cayes, a town of about 70,000 people.
As the wind died down at night, people remained outside in La Savane, hanging out on porches, playing checkers and dominoes outside, and listening to music.
"The police and local authorities and our evacuation teams have been instructed to do all they can to move those people," Interior Minister Francois Anick Joseph said.
"They have also been instructed to move them by force if necessary, we have an obligation to protect those peoples lives, even against their will."
However, the chief of police for the southern region, Luc Pierre, said it was almost impossible to force such a large number of people to leave their homes.
"I would have to arrest all those people and take them to a safe place, this is very difficult," he said, adding that the power had already gone off in the town.
Poor Haitians are at times reluctant to leave their homes even when facing impending storms because of fears their belongings might get stolen when they leave.
Only a few families had opted to move to a high school in La Savane, designated as a shelter for up to 600 people. They only had candlelight as there was no electricity.
"There are babies crying here; there is nothing at all," said Nadja, 32, who was pregnant with her fourth child.
In Haiti, families were being urged to stock up on food and water, and evacuations were underway in high-risk areas. The Haitian Civil Protection Agency said it had 576 temporary shelters available that can accommodate up to 88,252 people for at least three days.
"This could be catastrophic for some places, particularly Haiti," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen told USA Today. "This is an area where trees just don't exist [due to deforestation]. The terrain is stripped, and the threat of major flash floods and mudslides is very real."
Long lines formed at stores and gas stations as Jamaicans prepared for the worst.
"This is not a joking matter," Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, told Agence France-Presse. "There is no room for any mischief to be made as we face one of the most severe natural disasters in quite a long while."
Reuters and USA Today