Death toll in Haiti rises to almost 900

The storm weakens but still packs enough punch to claim at least 11 lives in US

Hurricane Matthew slammed into South Carolina on Saturday, packing a diminished yet still potent punch after killing almost 900 people in Haiti and causing major flooding and widespread power outages as it skirted Florida and Georgia.

Weakened, the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007 unleashed torrential rains and damaging winds in Florida before churning slowly north to soak coastal Georgia and the Carolinas. Wind speeds at midday had subsided by nearly half from their peak about a week ago to 120 kph, reducing the storm to a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest on the Saffir-Simpson scale of 1 to 5.