Record flooding. Hundreds of deaths. A hurricane so unusual, even forecasters were astonished. Hurricane Matthew shattered several records during its deadly march through the Caribbean and up the southeast US coast.
Matthew hurled maximum sustained winds of at least 130 mph for more than four days straight. That's unusual in October because the water is typically cooler. Matthew annihilated Haiti, a country that really couldn't take another deadly disaster. At least 60,000 people were still living in makeshift homes after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. Matthew also killed at least 15 people in the United States: seven in North Carolina, four in Florida, three in Georgia and one in South Carolina. It also claimed the lives of four people in the Dominican Republic and a teenage boy in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
In just one day, Hurricane Matthew went from a Category 1 hurricane (whipping winds of 74 to 95 mph) to a Category 5 (winds of at least 157 mph). That marks the third-fastest intensification of a hurricane in a 24-hour period, behind hurricanes Wilma (2005) and Felix (2007), CNN meteorologist Jenn Varian said. After intensifying, Matthew stayed a Category 4 or 5 hurricane "longer than all other Atlantic hurricanes from 2008 until now -- combined," Chinchar said.
For much of its 9½ days as a hurricane, Matthew chugged along slowly -- between 3 and 14 mph.
That meant the storm hovered longer over its victims, unleashing more torrential rain and devastating winds.
For days, meteorologists and those in Matthew's path worried the hurricane would turn clockwise in a circle across the Atlantic and slam Florida again.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/09/americas/hurricane-matthew-wrap/index.html
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