Caribbean Nations Prepare For Hurricane Matthew

Clouds cover the mountains of Petion Ville as rain falls in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, on Oct. 3. Hurricane Matthew has left one person dead and another missing in Haiti, officials said Monday, as it churns through the Caribbean as the worst storm in nearly a decade. 

A woman adjusts a plastic cap ahead of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti.

Hurricane Matthew bore down on Haiti on Monday, where towns and villages braced for "catastrophic" floods and mudslides that forecasters fear will be triggered by 140 mile-per-hour winds and up to 3 feet of rain over its denuded hills. Winds and rain began picking up in the southwest of the Caribbean country, but the center of Matthew, a violent Category 4 storm, is not due until late on Monday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A couple watches the sea under the rain in Kingston, Jamaica, Sunday, Oct. 2.

Residents secure the roof of their wooden house prior the arrival of Hurricane Matthew, in the village Paraguay, Guantanamo, Cuba, Oct. 3. A hurricane warning is in effect for Jamaica, Haiti, and the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma and Las Tunas - as well as the southeastern Bahamas.

A man says goodbye to relatives as they get in a bus to be evacuated ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Matthew in Secilia, Cuba, Oct. 3.

In Cuba, where the storm is due to hit on Tuesday, evacuation operations were well underway with most tourists in the eastern town of Santiago de Cuba moved inland and given instructions on where to shelter in hotels during the hurricane.

People who were evacuated from their homes are seen in a room at a soccer stadium being used as a shelter while Hurricane Matthew approaches Kingston, Jamaica, Oct. 3.

Nice Simon, the city mayor of Tabarre holds a baby as she helps people in the village to evacuate from the Tabarre river area in Haiti. Oct. 3.

A woman with two of her children rest on the floor at the shelter set up in the Lycee Philippe Guerrier ahead of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, Oct. 3.

Residents ride in a trailer pulled by a tractor in La Perla, Cuba, Oct. 3, as they transported to shelter in Santiago. Cuba has declared a hurricane alert for six eastern provinces and is moving residents of low-lying areas and off-shore islands into temporary shelters.

A girl watches as the authorities arrive to evacuate people from her house in Tabarre, Haiti, Oct. 3.

A girl walks through her temporary shelter in Guantanamo, Cuba, Oct. 3.

A woman holds her son as she looks at the news, at a in Guantanamo, Cuba, Oct. 3.