The Cat­e­go­ry 4 storm came ashore in Haiti to cause dam­age and deaths as it moved through Cuba, the Bahamas and parts of the Domini­can before head­ing to Flori­da in the USA. 

Matthew had been threat­en­ing for a week before unleash­ing dan­ger­ous winds and heavy rain on mak­ing land­fall. Many hous­es have been dam­aged, crops wiped out, roads made impass­able and phone com­mu­ni­ca­tions lost. 

Emcor for IARU Region 2, Cesar Pio Holy HR2P, reports that the Fed­er­a­tion of Ama­teur Radio of Cuba says hams in the three provinces were activated. 

Area C Coor­di­na­tor, Arnie Coro CO2KK, report­ed radio ama­teurs could be heard using VHF, 80 metres and 40 metres for emer­gency traffic. 

Fur­ther the Radio Club Domini­ca has Ama­teur Radio in cen­tres of oper­a­tion are active, espe­cial­ly in the bor­der areas with Haiti. 

Oth­er fre­quen­cies are also in use, and more reports on the Ama­teur Radio role can be expect­ed later. 

The US Nation­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­tre in Mia­mi said Matthew was now a Cat­e­go­ry 3 storm, but warn that fluc­tu­a­tions in inten­si­ty were expect­ed and it remained a potent and dan­ger­ous storm. 

In the US the Hur­ri­cane Watch Net swung into ‘Cat­a­stroph­ic Response Mode’, gath­er­ing update weath­er infor­ma­tion from radio amateurs. 

Emer­gency oper­a­tions cen­tres in Flori­da, Geor­gia, and Vir­ginia had been acti­vat­ed. The storm is fore­cast to cause more dam­age when it moved across the Unit­ed States. 

Through­out the strick­en area a reg­u­lar net sent Eng­lish and Span­ish mes­sages on 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz. 

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.