At least 11 people were killed and thousands displaced after Hurricane Matthew struck the Caribbean, with Haiti being the worst hit, AP reported. The storm is believed to be the decade's most powerful hurricane in the Caribbean, and officials are grappling with rescue and relief operations, according to BBC.

The hurricane, now a Category 3 storm, is expected to hit the east coast of the United States by the end of this week. Evacuation operations have already begun in the US state of South Carolina. Forecasters have predicted that the hurricane will intensify to a Category 4 storm when it hits the American states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina between Thursday and Saturday, according to CNN.

In Haiti, United Nations Special Representative Mourad Wahba said communication links were damaged and roads were blocked. Wahba added that around 10,000 people were in shelters, and the nation's hospitals were suffering from lack of water. He referred to the damage caused by the hurricane as the "largest humanitarian event" since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

The collapse of a bridge between the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the southern part of the Haiti made rescue efforts in the poor and flood-prone country even more difficult. The storm also struck Cuba and the Bahamas but with a relatively less impact than it had on Haiti, BBC reported.