The number of people killed by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti surged on Friday to 842, local officials told Reuters, as help slowly trickled into marooned areas of the country's southwestern peninsula pummeled by the powerful storm.

Saint-Victor Jeune, an official with the Civil Protection agency working in Beaumont, in the mountains on the outskirts of hard-hit Jeremie, said his team found 82 bodies that had not been recorded by authorities in the capital because of spotty communications. Most appeared to have died from falling debris from the winds that tore through the area at 145 mph on Tuesday.

"We don't have any contact with Port-au-Prince yet and there are places we still haven't reached," Jeune said, as he and a team of Civil Protection agents in orange vests combed through the area.

As Haitians mourned their losses, they tried to recover what they could of their meager possessions. Homes throughout the area were piles of rubble, the roofs mangled or stripped away.

Officials were especially concerned about the department of Grand-Anse on the northern tip of the peninsula, where they believe the death toll and damage is highest. The 283 deaths reported by Pierre did not include Grand-Anse or its surrounding areas.

More bodies began to appear Thursday as waters receded in some places two days after Matthew's 145 mph winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee.

In the coming days, the U.S. military expects to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas via helicopter.

After passing over Haiti, Matthew hit Cuba's lightly populated eastern tip Tuesday night, damaging hundreds of homes in the easternmost city of Baracoa but there were no reports of deaths. Nearly 380,000 people were evacuated and measures were taken to protect infrastructure.

Matthew advanced up the length of the Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday, tearing roofs away, toppling trees and causing flooding that trapped some people in their homes. There had been no reports of casualties by late Thursday as the storm headed toward Florida's coast.

Before hitting Haiti, the storm was blamed for four deaths in the Dominican Republic, one in Colombia and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

When Category 4 Hurricane Flora hit Haiti in 1963, it killed as many as 8,000 people.

(Fox News)