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Hurricane Matthew drenches coastal Colombia

Washington Post2 hours ago

Hurricane Matthew drenches coastal Colombia

By Howard Campbell

October 1, 2016 at 4:18 PM

Jamaicans flock to the supermarkets to take care of last minute shopping pending the arrival of Hurricane Matthew in Kingston, Jamaica.(Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters)

KINGSTON, Jamaica — One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history weakened a little on Saturday as it drenched coastal Colombia and roared across the Caribbean on a course that still puts Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba in the path of potentially devastating winds and rain.

Matthew briefly reached the top hurricane classification, Category 5, and was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said that Matthew’s winds had slipped from a peak of 160 mph to a still-potentially devastating 140 mph and that it was expected to reach the eastern part of Jamaica on Monday.

The forecast track would carry it across Cuba and into the Bahamas, with an outside chance of a brush with Florida, though that would be several days away. “It’s too early to rule out what impacts, if any, would occur in the United States and Florida,” said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman at the Hurricane Center.