Dramatic pictures as Hurricane Matthew lashes Caribbean

Hurricane Matthew pounded the southwestern coast of Haiti on Tuesday, drenching a largely rural corner of the impoverished country before headingnorth toward Cuba and the eastern coast of Florida.

Satellite view

Hurricane Matthew, shown belowin a satellite photo from Tuesday afternoon,briefly reached the top classification, Category 5, becoming the strongest hurricane in the region since Felix in 2007.

Extent of damage unknown

Matthew was causing major damage in Haiti on Tuesday, though the extent was not immediately known, according to the country's Civil Protection Agency.

Seeking shelter

Officials say some sought shelter only after the worst was already upon them. Here, atap-tap (public transit bus) moves through rainwater from the hurricanein Port-au-Princeon Tuesday.

Fragile homes

Many homes in Haiti are structurally unsound andhave little chance of withstanding the hurricane's maximum winds.

Hoping for the best

Civil protection workers asked residents to evacuate their homes located near the Grise River, in Tabarre, Haiti, on Monday. Some Haitian families did what they could to reinforce their tin-and-tarp homes and hoped for the best.

Hard-hit coastal cities

Authorities went door to door in the south coast cities of LesCayesandJeremieto make sure people were aware of the threat. At least 1,200 people were moved to shelters like this secondary school in LesCayes.

Cuba on alert

Cuba's government declared a hurricane alert for six eastern provinces. Many peoplewatched the local news on TV Tuesday ahead of the arrival of the hurricane in Guantanamo.

Shelter in Guantanamo

The Cuban government told more than 250,000 people on the east coast of the island toseek safetyelsewhere. This man found shelter in Guantanamo.

Jamaica also affected

In Jamaica, which lowered a hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning as Matthew tracked closer to Haiti, many people chose to stick out the rain and winds at home.

Florida prepares

Anxious Florida residents emptied grocery store shelves and North Carolina called for the evacuation of three barrier islands asMatthewthreatened to rake a large swath of the East Coast in the coming days.Kerri Vittimberga, originally from Boston, says this is her "first big storm" in the two years she has lived in Florida.