Hurricane Matthew struck southwestern Haiti near Les Anglais on October 4, 2016, leaving widespread damage in the impoverished nation. Matthew was a late-season Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale, having formed in the southeastern Caribbean on September 28. The hurricane weakened to Category 4 before making landfall near Les Anglais on October 4, at which time the National Hurricane Center estimated maximum sustained winds of . This made it the strongest storm to hit the nation since Hurricane Cleo in 1964, and the third strongest Haitian landfall on record. Hurricane-force winds – or greater – affected about 1.125 million people in the country. The Haitian government assessed the death toll at 674, although other sources reported more than three times that figure.

During Matthew's passage, high winds, heavy rainfall, and deadly tides lashed the Tiburon Peninsula in southwest Haiti. Nationwide, the hurricane nearly or completely destroyed around 200,000 homes, leaving 1.4 million people in need of humanitarian aid. Monetary damage was estimated at US$2.8 billion. Nearly complete crop damage occurred in Grand'Anse and Sud departments, leaving the impoverished population without a source of food. Communication networks and the road system were also compromised. After the hurricane washed away the Petit-Goâve Bridge, southwestern Haiti was temporarily unreachable from the remainder of the country, which slowed the distribution of emergency aid. The ongoing cholera outbreak worsened after the hurricane, killing at least 29 people.

With insufficient resources to respond to the hurricane damage, the Haitian government requested assistance from other countries. The United Nations launched an emergency appeal for nearly US$120 million in aid, and countries throughout the world provided money, supplies, and logistical support. Before and after the hurricane's landfall, UN agencies provided food, materials, and a peacekeeping force to residents, which was supplemented by various non-government organizations.

Preparations

On September 30, the Haitian government issued a tropical storm watch for Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula toward the border with the Dominican Republic, although the forecast at the time was for Matthew to pass over Jamaica. Following an eastward shift in Matthew's predicted track, this was changed to a hurricane watch and later warning that encompassed the entire country. The government activated its National Emergency Operations Center, ordered a halt to coastal shipping, and started issuing evacuation notices. Residents on outlying islands of Haiti were evacuated to the mainland. Provisional President Jocelerme Privert addressed the nation on October 2, urging those living along the coast and in poorly constructed homes to evacuate and comply with authorities. On the same day, the government issued a red alert, advising residents to listen to instructions from authorities, secure their property, and prepare food kits.

Although government officials held meetings on storm preparation, Radio France Internationale reported that Haiti did not have the logistical capability to handle a large-scale disaster. Only 576 shelters, with a collective capacity of 90,000 people, were listed for all of southern Haiti. Despite pleas from officials, many residents refused to leave their homes. A total of 1,300 shelters were readied with a total capacity of 390,000 people, insufficient for the population threatened in the storm path. Citing this problem and civic responsibility, officials asked residents in secure homes to welcome vulnerable neighbors. The Haitian government sent funds to 145 municipalities, after mayors complained that they had insufficient supplies. Government offices remained open during the storm, while schools were closed from October 3–10 to serve as shelters, causing the school calendar to be adjusted. By the day before the storm made landfall, 340,000 people had evacuated to these shelters. At least 500 people evacuated from Jérémie, and patients at the Les Cayes hospital were evacuated. In Ouest, which contains the capital Port-au-Prince, about 55,000 people evacuated ahead of the storm. Although civil protection officials took to the streets to warn people, many residents were unaware that Matthew was even approaching the country a day before its expected landfall. Evacuations continued through the hurricane's landfall with the total number of people in shelters reaching 9,280 by 2:00 a.m. local time on October 4. Hundreds of prisoners were also evacuated to safer areas during the storm passage.

More than 18,000 volunteers and members of the Red Cross, community intervention teams, municipal committees, and local emergency services were readied to assist residents. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 55,107 internally displaced persons remained in camps or hosting sites without adequate protection from the hurricane. Ahead of the storm, the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) sent a crew of 35 people to seven shelters in southwestern Haiti, capable of disaster assessment and providing relief in the storm aftermath. The United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination also sent a team to assist the efforts of the Haitian government, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also activated its crew within the country. Ahead of the storm, officials shut down the Hugo Chávez and Toussaint Louverture international airports, causing several flights to be canceled. The airport in Port-au-Prince remained closed until October 6, only allowing in planes carrying humanitarian aid. Officials also halted travel by cars during the storm's passage until October 5.

Impacts On October 4 at 11:00 UTC, the storm made landfall on the Tiburon Peninsula of southwestern Haiti near Les Anglais at this intensity. Matthew was third strongest on record to hit the country, and the strongest to hit Haiti since Hurricane Cleo in 1964, which also made landfall at Category 4 strength.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was recovering from an ongoing cholera outbreak and a powerful earthquake in 2010, and many houses damaged during the earthquake were not rebuilt when Matthew struck. There were 25 humanitarian organizations working in impoverished Grand'Anse in southwestern Haiti before the storm made landfall. Ahead of the annual hurricane season, the World Food Programme (WFP) had pre-positioned 3,410 tons of food in the form of High Energy Biscuits, 30 tons of which were utilized immediately following the storm. Life-threatening rainfall was forecast to affect much of the nation, with accumulations averaging along the southern coast with isolated peaks up to .

Hurricane Matthew made landfall over southwestern Haiti as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the morning of October 4. According to UNOSAT, Matthew affected about 1.125 million people with hurricane–force winds – at least – mostly in Sud. In Ouest, which contains the capital Port-au-Prince, nearly 4 million people experienced winds of at least . Heavy rainfall ranged from across southern Haiti, with 24 hour totals of over around the Gulf of Gonâve. The storm surge, estimated around , flooded at least 11 municipalities along the coast. Haiti politician François Anick Joseph described the storm effects in the southern portion of the country as "complete destruction". The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank estimated total damage around $1.89 billion. Nationwide, the hurricane severely damaged about 200,000 homes, with 90% of the houses along the southern coast destroyed. The storm knocked down 90% of coconut trees on the Tiburon Peninsula, and destroyed entire coffee and cocoa plantations. With most of the region's crops destroyed and 350,350 animals killed, residents in southern Haiti were left without a source of food.

Matthew's strong winds knocked power lines and cell towers, which limited communications in the days following the storm, and left about 80% of the Tiburon Peninsula without power. A damaged antenna cut communications with Sud, and there were interruptions to the Digicel mobile phone network. Excessive flooding along 13 watersheds, as well as the heavy forestry damage, killed many forest and fruit species. The flooding produced mudslides that washed out roads and bridges. Along Route Nationale #2, the hurricane washed away the Petit-Goâve Bridge, which is the only bridge linking the nation's capital Port-au-Prince with southwestern Haiti. This meant that relief workers and supplies temporarily had to travel by air to reach the most affected areas. A temporary bridge to transport humanitarian relief was constructed by October 6. Across southern Haiti, the hurricane damaged 70% of the polling locations for the Haitian presidential election scheduled for October 9; as a result of the storm, the election was postponed to an undetermined date on October 5. Nationwide, Matthew damaged over 400 schools, while 150 other schools functioned as shelters for around 16,000 evacuees. Damage to schools affected about 130,000 children, many of whom had just started their school year, and were in need of a new location for their education. Of the nation's 15 main hospitals, one was destroyed and another four were damaged, with 35 medical clinics damaged, many of these were understaffed and unable to cope with the number of incoming patients.

Before Matthew moved ashore, a sick woman died in Port-Salut due to high storm tides preventing her travel to a hospital, and a man was missing as a result of a boat wreck. Hurricane Matthew proved deadly for the country; one day after the storm made landfall, there were five known fatalities related to the storm, which rose to 108 by October 6, including 50 people killed in the coastal town of Roche-à-Bateaux. The death toll increased sharply to 842 by the next day, once the hardest hit areas of the Tiburon Peninsula were reached; many of the fatalities were due to people refusing to evacuate and who were trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed houses. This included 264 deaths in Sud, of whom 158 died in Les Anglais where Matthew moved ashore. There were at least 500 fatalities in Grand'Anse, and nationwide as many as 1,600 unconfirmed deaths. These numbers were lower according to the Haitian government, which reported a death toll of 546 as of October 15.

Effects by region

Grand'Anse bore the brunt of Hurricane Matthew, becoming isolated after communications networks were cut. Throughout the department, the hurricane destroyed or severely damaged 86,223 houses, which displaced about 99,400 families. Almost every tree in Grand'Anse was knocked down, while nearly all rivers were flooded. Nearly all of the crops in the department were destroyed, and about half of all livestock were killed. In Jérémie, the capital of the department, the strong winds ripped off nearly every roof, damaging 13,753 buildings. The hurricane decimated every building not made of concrete, including 90% of houses, and 80% of all structures. Floods in Jérémie inundated an orphanage, forcing 123 children to be evacuated, and 141 roads were damaged.