AKIPRESS.COM - Hurricane Matthew roared toward the southern Bahamas with its dangerous winds early Wednesday, leaving behind widespread damage and human suffering in Haiti's poor, rural southwestern peninsula where the hardest-hit area was cut off by flooding, reports StarTribune.

At least 11 deaths had been blamed on the powerful storm during its weeklong march across the Caribbean, five of them in Haiti. But with a key bridge washed out, roads impassable and phone communications down, the western tip of Haiti was isolated and there was no word on dead and injured.

Hours after Matthew swept onto the remote area with 145 mph winds, government leaders said they weren't close to fully gauging the impact in the vulnerable, flood-prone country where less powerful storms have killed thousands.

"What we know is that many, many houses have been damaged. Some lost rooftops and they'll have to be replaced while others were totally destroyed," Interior Minister Francois Anick Joseph said.

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie voiced concern about the potential impact on the sprawling archipelago off Florida's east coast.

"We're worried because we do not control nature," he said.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said winds had slightly decreased overnight as Matthew dropped from a Category 4 to a still powerful Category 3 storm. But forecasters warned such fluctuations in intensity were to be expected and that Matthew remained a potent and dangerous storm.

There was growing concern on the U.S. East Coast, which was expected to come under threat after Matthew made a two-day surge up the length of the Bahamas. People raced to supermarkets, gas stations and hardware stores, buying up groceries, water, plywood, tarps, batteries and propane.

Matthew was at one point a Category 5 storm, making it the most powerful hurricane in the region in nearly a decade. It blew ashore around dawn in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and a place where many people live in shacks of wood or concrete blocks.

Haitian authorities had tried to evacuate people from the most vulnerable areas ahead of the storm, but many were reluctant to leave their homes. Some sought shelter only after the worst was already upon them.

Rainfall totals were predicted to reach 15 to 25 inches in Haiti, with up to 40 inches in isolated places.