Hurricane Matthew leaves over 1.8 million in U.S. Southeast powerless

Over 1.8 million homes and businesses were without power Saturday evening as Hurricane Matthew crashed along the Atlantic coasts of North and South Carolina after earlier battering Florida and Georgia, electric companies said. Matthew, the first major hurricane to hit the United States in more than 10 years, lashed Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas with heavy rain and wind, after killing almost 900 people in Haiti as it swept north through the Caribbean. The hardest hit utility so far was NextEra Energy Inc's FPL power company in Florida, which reported a total of 983,000 customers affected by the storm. FPL said on its website it had already restored service to about 638,000 homes and businesses. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Stephen Powell)