Hurricane Matthew pounded the Bahamas on Thursday on its way to the United States, after leaving behind a humanitarian crisis in Haiti.

At least 269 people have been killed so far in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said, with the death toll expected to rise.

Haiti, still recovering from the catastrophic 2010 earthquake which killed hundreds of thousands, was hit hardest with more than 264 people reported dead as of Thursday evening, local time.

As the death toll rises and crucial infrastructure crumbles, thousands have been displaced.

Mourad Wahba, the UN secretary-general's deputy special representative for Haiti, described Matthew as the "largest humanitarian event" since the earthquake.

Four people died in the Dominican Republic, the country's government said. Authorities there did not provide details about how they died.

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a teenage boy died in a landslide as he was cleaning a drain behind his house, the National Emergency Management Office said. He died Wednesday after storms from Matthew passed.

(CNN)