As predicted, Hurricane Matthew devastated the entire southern region of Haiti overnight with wind damage, flooding, houses which have been destroyed or washed away, landslides, power outages, and crop losses.

With Hurricane Matthew ready to slam the US in the next day or two, time is running out to get ready. "I cannot emphasize enough that everyone in our state must prepare now for a direct hit," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday.

Officials in Broward County are asking some 150,000 residents who live in low-lying areas, mobile homes or along the coastline to evacuate before Hurricane Matthew approaches South Florida.

Hurricane Matthew, the strongest Caribbean storm in almost a decade, barreled into the Bahamas today, with the coastal U.S. lying in its path. The Category 3 hurricane will next slam the Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of up to 115 mph.

Air travelers were keeping a wary eye on Hurricane Matthew as forecasts continued to show it tracking toward the U.S. East Coast later this week. Underscoring the ominous forecast, several big U.S. airlines have extended their Matthew-related change-fee waivers to cover U.S. airports.

Authorities along the Georgia coast ratcheted up preparations for Hurricane Matthew, a dangerous Category 3 storm described by Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan as the strongest storm in the Atlantic in about 10 years.

Attorney General Pam Bondi activated Florida’s price gouging hotline Monday as Hurricane Matthew moves through the Caribbean.

Thousands of Americans were headed for higher ground Wednesday as deadly Hurricane Matthew crawled across the Caribbean and toward the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

Empty shelves and long gas-station lines were reported across the Southeast as coastal communities prepared Wednesday to flee deadly Hurricane Matthew.

Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful Atlantic tropical storm since 2007, continued on a path to land a heavy punch to Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba, forecasters said early Monday.

According to risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide, typhoon Meranti’s impact on mainland China could have resulted in insurance and perhaps reinsurance industry losses of up to $1.15 billion, the firm estimates.

The flooding program under FEMA is working to transfer a huge amount of its risk to the private sector. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has now purchased reinsurance from private companies for its National Flood Insurance Program.

Craig Stewart, vice-president of federal affairs at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, says the industry sees severe weather as a top priority nationally. “There are clear trends towards a warming atmosphere that have resulted in more significant losses from flooding… and as we’ve seen recently, wildfire,” he said.

Hurricane Hermine is likely to generate insured losses no greater than $500 million, a relatively low and certainly manageable figure, yet property/casualty carriers are by no means at ease, an industry analyst says.

More than 2,100 properties across the U.S. enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program have flooded and been rebuilt more than 10 times since 1978, according to a new analysis of insurance data by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).