Hurricane
Matthew hammers the Bahamas as the US’s south prepares for the onslaught
Potential losses are expected to be as high as $15bn
BOSTON — Hurricane Matthew has thousands fleeing the US southeast where it is expected to batter the coastline and threaten electricity supplies to more than 1-million people in Florida. Potential losses are expected to be as high as $15bn. Matthew is pounding parts of the central Bahamas with maximum sustained winds at 185km/h and is expected to intensify as it approaches Florida, the US National Hurricane Center said in a 2am New York time advisory. The Category 3 storm closed the Buckeye oil terminal in Freeport, Bahamas, and could disrupt petroleum shipments along the US East Coast. The National Weather Service warned that winds, heavy rain and a storm surge could kill, wash out roads, cut communication links and cause outages lasting weeks. Evacuations could push storm damage to between $10bn and $15bn, mainly in losses related to economic disruption, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeller with Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia. Jonathan Adams and Jeffrey Flynn, analysts at Bl...
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