PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A powerful Hurricane Matthew moved slowly across the Caribbean Sea Sunday on a track that authorities warned could trigger devastation in parts of Haiti.

The storm had winds of 140 mph (220 kph) as it moved northwest and the center was expected to pass across or very close to the southwestern tip of Haiti late Monday before reaching Cuba, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. Forecasters said the southern Haitian countryside around Les Cayes could see the worst of it.

"Wherever that center passes close to would see the worst winds and that's what's projected to happen for the western tip of Haiti," said John Cangilosi, a hurricane specialist at the center. "There is a big concern for rains there and also a big concern for storm surge."

Matthew is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history and briefly reached the top classification, Category 5, becoming the strongest hurricane here since Felix in 2007. The hurricane center said it appeared to be on track to pass east of Florida through the Bahamas, but it was too soon to predict with certainty whether it would reach the coast United States.

The government of Haiti opened 1,300 emergency shelters across the country, enough to hold up to 340,000 people. Authorities broadcast warnings over the radio and across social media, trying to counter a common tendency for people to try to stay in their homes to protect them during natural disasters.

"The shelters are open but I don't believe we have anyone inside them just yet," said Joseph Edgard Celestin, a spokesman for the civil protection agency.

Teams of civil protection officials were walking the streets of Les Cayes urging residents to secure their homes, prepare emergency kits and warn their neighbors. Many Haitians appeared unaware of the looming hurricane.

"No, I haven't heard anything about a bad storm coming here," farmer Jean-Bernard Mede said with a concerned expression as he took a break from walking three cows along a dirt track outside the town of Leogane. "I'll do what I can for my animals and my family."

Forecasters said Matthew was expected to dump 15 to 25 inches (40 to 60 centimeters) of rain over southern Haiti, with a few places getting as much as 40 inches (100 centimeters).

The impoverished country is particularly vulnerable to devastating floods because of the steep terrain, with hillsides and mountains often devoid of the trees that hold back the water because they have been cut down to make charcoal for cooking fires. Many people often live in houses that are not able to withstand a storm, typically built of scraps of plywood with flimsy corrugated steel roofs.

As of 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), the storm was centered about 350 miles (565 kilometers) south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was traveling north-northwest at 3 mph (6 kph).

The hurricane earlier had been projected to move closer to Jamaica, but the risk to the island seems to have diminished somewhat.

"The center of the system is looking more likely that it will pass to the east of Jamaica but it won't miss it by that much, so they are still going to see impacts," Cangilosi said. "The impacts are maybe going to be a little lower there than they would be in Haiti and eastern Cuba."

After passing Jamaica and Haiti, Matthew is expected to reach Cuba, potentially striking near the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, where authorities were evacuating non-essential personnel, including about 700 family members of those serving there.

Everyone remaining behind was being told to take shelter, said Julie Ann Ripley, a spokeswoman. There are about 5,500 people living on the base, including 61 men held at the detention center.

The forecast track would also carry Matthew into the Bahamas. Cangilosi said the storm appeared to tracking toward the U.S., but it was too soon to say if it would affect Florida or parts of the East Coast.

"The message we have for people in Florida is just closely monitor Matthew," he said. "We can't rule out any significant impacts just yet but the indications at this point are that the center of it will move to the east."

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and Evens Sanon in Haiti contributed to this report.</s>Hurricane Matthew has rapidly strengthened into a powerful Category 4 storm, and a hurricane watch has now been issued for Jamaica.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Matthew is packing top sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph) after gaining new strength Friday over the central Caribbean. The storm is located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Punta Gallinas, Colombia, and about 465 miles (750 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

The center says that as of 5 p.m. Friday, the storm is moving west-southwest at 9 mph (15 kph).

In addition to a hurricane watch for Jamaica, authorities also issued a tropical storm watch for the southwestern coast of Haiti. The tropical storm watch is in effect from Haiti's southern border with the Dominican Republic to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

Forecasters say Matthew is expected to turn toward the west-northwest by Saturday night and then toward the northwest on Sunday. The center says the storm's expected path over the central Caribbean is forecast to bring Matthew near Jamaica on Sunday.</s>KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Matthew weakened slightly on Saturday as it headed towards Jamaica and Cuba, but with winds reaching 155 miles per hour forecasters said the storm was still powerful enough to wreck homes as islanders braced for its arrival.

Matthew, the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean since Felix in 2007, was forecast to make landfall as a major storm on Monday on Jamaica’s southern coast, home to the country’s capital, Kingston, and its only oil refinery. It could also affect tourist destinations such as Montego Bay in the north.

With Matthew about 420 miles southeast of Kingston, the U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded its designation to a Category 4, from the top Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, but Jamaican authorities said they were taking all possible precautions.

“The government is on high alert,” said Robert Morgan, director of communications at the prime minister’s office.

“We hope that the hurricane does not hit us, but if it does hit us, we are trying our very best to ensure that we are in the best possible place,” he said.

Disaster coordinators, police and troops are on standby and shelters are being opened across the island, Morgan said.

The center of the storm will move away from the Guajira Peninsula early on Saturday, across the central Caribbean Sea on Saturday and approach Jamaica late on Sunday, the NHC said.

Despite sunny weather and only a few scattered clouds, many Kingstonians stocked up on water and food on Friday.

Jamaica was hard hit by hurricane Gilbert in 1988, and the last major hurricane in the region was Sandy, in 2012. Matthew could be the most powerful storm to cross the island since records began, meteorologist Eric Holthaus said on Twitter.

Tenaj Lewis, 41, a doctor who was stocking up with groceries in Kingston on Friday, said Jamaica was much better-prepared for hurricanes than when Gilbert struck.

“The country literally shut down for months,” she said.

Since then, hurricanes have brought a few days of power outages but have not been nearly as destructive and many Jamaicans were unflustered.

Peter Silvera, who owns the Longboarder Bar & Grill in the Roselle, a small hamlet on the southeastern coast of the island, said he was surfing all morning.

“This is when we get the best waves,” he said, but added he would be bringing in his outdoor tables and “battening down the hatches” to ride out the storm.

Southwest Airlines warned that flights to Montego Bay might be disrupted and said customers could reschedule.

Matthew is also forecast to skim past the southern coast of Haiti on Monday and officials said preparation efforts were focused in the south.

“We will prepare with drinking water for the patients, with medication, with generators for electricity (and) vehicles to go look for people at their homes,” said Yves Domercant, the head of the public hospital in Les Cayes in the south.

In Cuba, which has a strong record of protecting residents when storms strike, people in the eastern coastal city of Santiago de Cuba said they were following the news closely, although the sky was still blue.

“We don’t know yet exactly where it will go, so we’re still waiting to see,” said Marieta Gomez, owner of Hostal Marieta. “We Cubans are well prepared.”</s>Matthew, with winds at about 150 miles per hour (240 kph), is expected to make landfall as a major storm on Jamaica's southern coast, home to the capital, Kingston, and its only oil refinery. Stormy weather could begin on Sunday.

Simultaneously. the storm is forecast to lash southern Haiti, dumping up to 40 inches (101 cm) of rain there and up to 25 inches (64 cm) in Jamaica, possibly triggering life-threatening landslides and floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Albert Moulion, Haiti's interior ministry spokesman, said authorities had started voluntary evacuations of residents of small, exposed sandy islands in the south as a precaution.

"We have already started evacuations," he said. "The national center of emergency operations has been activated."

By early Tuesday, Matthew is due in eastern Cuba, with a path that could take it over the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba and the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo.

The U.S. ordered the mandatory evacuation of approximately 700 spouses and children from the base on Saturday, saying it was airlifting them to a station in Pensacola, Florida. Cuban President Raul Castro visited Santiago de Cuba on Saturday to oversee storm preparations, Cuban TV footage showed.

The ferocity of the storm, the strongest in the Carribbean since Hurricane Felix in 2007, has led to concerns of economic devastation in the poor countries in its path.

"The hurricane will cause an interruption, obviously, in our economic activities here," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, saying that tourism and agriculture could be most affected.

"We have allocated all the resources we can given our fiscal restraints and I think that the country is prepared for the hurricane," Holness said.

Cash-strapped Jamaica has been suffering a long economic slowdown and is under an International Monetary Fund program to tackle high debt.

In Kingston, residents stocked up on canned foods, water and flashlights in preparation for the storm, while banks and offices boarded up their windows. Fishermen were told not to go to sea.

In MegaMart, a supermarket, Ennis St. Patrice and his wife, Monique, bought big bottles of water.

"We’ve had these kind of occurrences in the past and it is generally bad, because Jamaica does not have proper infrastructure,” said St Patrice, a trade unionist for Jamaica's meteorological office. “In simple rainfall, we have flooding.”</s>Hurricane Matthew has strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale while moving west- southwestward over the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.

Matthew was located about 495 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour (185 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said.

The center of Matthew will pass north of the Guajira Peninsula later Friday and remain over the central Caribbean Sea through early Sunday, the NHC said.</s>KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Matthew is roaring across the Caribbean Sea as a monster Category 5 storm on a course that puts Jamaica, as well as parts of Haiti and Cuba, in the path of its potentially devastating winds and rain.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center called it the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007, and said Matthew will be approaching Jamaica late Sunday night. It is expected to reach the eastern part of the island on Monday.

Jamaicans began clearing out store shelves as they stocked up emergency supplies and Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday called an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss preparations for the storm.

"I left work to pick up a few items, candles, tin stuff, bread," 41-year-old Angella Wage said at a crowded store in the Half Way Tree area of the capital, Kingston. "We can never be too careful."

Evan Thompson, director of Jamaica's National Meteorological Service, said the first effects of the storm may be felt as early as Saturday.

"We do consider it serious," Thompson said. "We are all on high alert."

Jamaicans are accustomed to intense tropical weather but Hurricane Matthew looked particularly threatening. With wind speeds of 160 mph (260 kph), it was more powerful than Hurricane Gilbert, which made landfall on the island in September 1988 and was the most destructive storm in the country's modern history.

"Hurricane Matthew could rival or possibly exceed Gilbert if the core of the strongest winds does actually move over Jamaica," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the hurricane in Miami. "There is no certainty of that at this point."

Matthew was expected to bring heavy rainfall especially to the eastern tip and higher elevations, which could trigger flooding and landslides, Thompson said.

Forecasters said rainfall totals could reach 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 ) with isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches (63 ) in Jamaica and southwestern Haiti.

Kingston is in the southeastern corner of Jamaica and is expected to experience flooding. The government issued a hurricane watch on Friday, and a tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti's southwest coast form the southern border it shares with the Dominican Republic to the capital of Port-au-Prince.

As of 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), the storm was about 440 miles (710 ) southeast of Kingston. It was moving west at 7 mph (11 kph).

It brought extremely high tides, storm surge and heavy rain to Colombia, prompting authorities to declare an alert as local TV broadcast images of cars and tree trunks surging though flooded streets in coastal areas. Local media in La Guajira province reported that one person died in flooding.</s>Haiti also began evacuating residents by boat from outlying islands in preparation for Hurricane Matthew, which threatens to wreak widespread damage in the region with flash floods and winds of about 150 miles per hour.

Matthew is expected to make landfall as a major storm on Jamaica's southern coast, home to the capital, Kingston, and its only oil refinery. Stormy weather could begin on Sunday.

Simultaneously, the storm is forecast to lash southern Haiti, possibly dumping up to 40 inches of rain there and up to 25 inches in Jamaica, which could trigger life-threatening landslides and floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Albert Moulion, Haiti's interior ministry spokesman, said authorities had started voluntary evacuations of residents of small, exposed sandy islands in the south as a precaution.

"We have already started evacuations," he said. "The national center of emergency operations has been activated."

By early Tuesday, Matthew is due in eastern Cuba, with a path that could take it over the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo province, where the U.S. operates a naval base and a military prison.

The U.S. Navy said some 700 spouses and children were to be airlifted to Florida to wait out the storm.

"The remaining military and civilian personnel will shelter in place and be able to support recovery efforts once safe to do so following the storm's passage," the Navy said in a statement.

Later in the week, the storm could affect the Bahamas and the east coast of the United States, although forecasts so far out are often inaccurate. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said residents of the state should prepare for the storm.

Matthew was about 340 miles southeast of Port-Au-Prince on Sunday morning and the U.S. National Hurricane Center ranked it at Category 4 of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale ofhurricane intensity. Earlier it had been ranked at the top Category 5.

The ferocity of the storm has led to concerns of economic devastation in the poor countries in its path.

"The hurricane will cause an interruption, obviously, in our economic activities here," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, saying that tourism and agriculture could be most affected.

"We have allocated all the resources we can given our fiscal restraints and I think that the country is prepared for the hurricane," Holness said.

Cash-strapped Jamaica has been suffering a long economic slowdown and is under an International Monetary Fund program to tackle high debt. The hurricane could affect tourist destinations such as Montego Bay in Jamaica's north

In Kingston, residents stocked up on canned foods, water and flashlights in preparation for the storm, while banks and offices boarded up their windows. Fishermen were told not to go to sea.

"We’ve had these kind of occurrences in the past and it is generally bad, because Jamaica does not have proper infrastructure," said the trade unionist for Jamaica's meteorological office. "In simple rainfall, we have flooding."</s>KINGSTON, Jamaica — One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history weakened a little on Saturday as it roared across the Caribbean on a course that put Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba in the path of potentially devastating winds and rain.

Matthew briefly reached the top hurricane classification, Category 5, and was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said its winds had slipped to a still-devastating 155 mph and it was expected to reach the eastern part of Jamaica on Monday.

Jamaicans began clearing out store shelves as they stocked up emergency supplies and Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday called an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss preparations for the storm.

"I left work to pick up a few items, candles, tin stuff, bread," 41-year-old Angella Wage said at a crowded store in the Half Way Tree area of the capital, Kingston. "We can never be too careful."

Evan Thompson, director of Jamaica's National Meteorological Service, said the first effects of the storm may be felt as early as Saturday.

"We do consider it serious," Thompson said. "We are all on high alert."

Jamaicans are accustomed to intense tropical weather but Hurricane Matthew looked particularly threatening. At its peak, it was more powerful than Hurricane Gilbert, which made landfall on the island in September 1988 and was the most destructive storm in the country's modern history.

"Hurricane Matthew could rival or possibly exceed Gilbert if the core of the strongest winds does actually move over Jamaica," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the hurricane center in Miami. "There is no certainty of that at this point."

Matthew was expected to bring heavy rainfall especially to the eastern tip and higher elevations, which could trigger flooding and landslides, Thompson said.

Forecasters said rainfall totals could reach 10 to 15 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches in Jamaica and southwestern Haiti.

Kingston is in the southeastern corner of Jamaica and is expected to experience flooding. The government issued a hurricane watch on Friday, and a tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti's southwest coast form the southern border it shares with the Dominican Republic to the capital of Port-au-Prince.

As of 8 a.m. EDT, the storm was centered about 400 miles southeast of Kingston. It was moving west at 7 mph.

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles.

It brought extremely high tides, storm surge and heavy rain to Colombia, prompting authorities to declare an alert as local TV broadcast images of cars and tree trunks surging though flooded streets in coastal areas. Local media in La Guajira province reported that one person died in flooding.

Matthew caused at least one death when it entered the Caribbean on Wednesday, with officials in St. Vincent reporting a 16-year-old boy was crushed by a boulder as he tried to clear a blocked drain.</s>Matthew, with winds at about 150 miles per hour (240 kph), is expected to make landfall as a major storm on Jamaica's southern coast, home to the capital, Kingston, and its only oil refinery. Stormy weather could begin on Sunday.

Simultaneously. the storm is forecast to lash southern Haiti, dumping up to 40 inches (101 cm) of rain there and up to 25 inches (64 cm) in Jamaica, possibly triggering life-threatening landslides and floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Albert Moulion, Haiti's interior ministry spokesman, said authorities had started voluntary evacuations of residents of small, exposed sandy islands in the south as a precaution.

"We have already started evacuations," he said. "The national center of emergency operations has been activated."

By early Tuesday, Matthew is due in eastern Cuba, with a path that could take it over the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba and the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo.

The U.S. ordered the mandatory evacuation of approximately 700 spouses and children from the base on Saturday, saying it was airlifting them to a station in Pensacola, Florida. Cuban President Raul Castro visited Santiago de Cuba on Saturday to oversee storm preparations, Cuban TV footage showed.

The ferocity of the storm, the strongest in the Carribbean since Hurricane Felix in 2007, has led to concerns of economic devastation in the poor countries in its path.

"The hurricane will cause an interruption, obviously, in our economic activities here," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, saying that tourism and agriculture could be most affected.

"We have allocated all the resources we can given our fiscal restraints and I think that the country is prepared for the hurricane," Holness said.

Cash-strapped Jamaica has been suffering a long economic slowdown and is under an International Monetary Fund program to tackle high debt.

In Kingston, residents stocked up on canned foods, water and flashlights in preparation for the storm, while banks and offices boarded up their windows. Fishermen were told not to go to sea.

In MegaMart, a supermarket, Ennis St. Patrice and his wife, Monique, bought big bottles of water.

"We’ve had these kind of occurrences in the past and it is generally bad, because Jamaica does not have proper infrastructure,” said St Patrice, a trade unionist for Jamaica's meteorological office. “In simple rainfall, we have flooding.”</s>KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Matthew has been downgraded to a Category 4 storm as it continues roaring across the Caribbean Sea on a course that puts Jamaica, as well as parts of Haiti and Cuba, in the path of its potentially devastating winds and rain.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center called it the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007, and said Matthew will be approaching Jamaica late Sunday night. It is expected to reach the eastern part of the island on Monday.

Jamaicans began clearing out store shelves as they stocked up emergency supplies and Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday called an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss preparations for the storm.

"I left work to pick up a few items, candles, tin stuff, bread," 41-year-old Angella Wage said at a crowded store in the Half Way Tree area of the capital, Kingston. "We can never be too careful."

Evan Thompson, director of Jamaica's National Meteorological Service, said the first effects of the storm may be felt as early as Saturday.

"We do consider it serious," Thompson said. "We are all on high alert."

Jamaicans are accustomed to intense tropical weather but Hurricane Matthew looked particularly threatening. With wind speeds of 160 mph (260 kph), it was more powerful than Hurricane Gilbert, which made landfall on the island in September 1988 and was the most destructive storm in the country's modern history.

"Hurricane Matthew could rival or possibly exceed Gilbert if the core of the strongest winds does actually move over Jamaica," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the hurricane center in Miami. "There is no certainty of that at this point."

Matthew was expected to bring heavy rainfall especially to the eastern tip and higher elevations, which could trigger flooding and landslides, Thompson said.

Forecasters said rainfall totals could reach 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 centimeters) with isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches (63 centimeters) in Jamaica and southwestern Haiti.

Kingston is in the southeastern corner of Jamaica and is expected to experience flooding. The government issued a hurricane watch on Friday, and a tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti's southwest coast form the southern border it shares with the Dominican Republic to the capital of Port-au-Prince.

As of 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), the storm was centered about 420 miles (675 kilometers) southeast of Kingston. It was moving west at 7 mph (11 kph).

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles (335 kilometers).

It brought extremely high tides, storm surge and heavy rain to Colombia, prompting authorities to declare an alert as local TV broadcast images of cars and tree trunks surging though flooded streets in coastal areas. Local media in La Guajira province reported that one person died in flooding.

Matthew caused at least one death when it entered the Caribbean on Wednesday, with officials in St. Vincent reporting a 16-year-old boy was crushed by a boulder as he tried to clear a blocked drain.
Hurricane Matthew becomes a category-5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds up to 160 mph, the strongest hurricane to form over the Caribbean Sea since Hurricane Felix in 2007. It is expected to impact parts of Haiti, Jamaica and eastern Cuba.