From Paradise Island to holiday from hell: Honeymooners film their luxury Bahamas hotel being ripped to shreds by Hurricane Matthew as storm kills hundreds and flattens homes across the Caribbean

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A newlywed couple on their dream honeymoon in the Bahamas has captured shocking footage showing the power of Hurricane Matthew, which started battering the islands on Thursday.

Dave and Amanda Jenkins were holidaying at the Riu Palace Paradise Island when the Category 4 storm hit.  

A dramatic video the couple shot in its hotel room shows the moment the walls were ripped off the side of the building by the devastating winds that have reached speeds of 145 mph.

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A recently married couple on the dream honeymoon in the Bahamas has captured shocking footage showing the power of Hurricane Matthew as it wrecked their hotel room

Dave and Amanda Jenkins were holidaying at the Riu Palace Paradise Island when the Category 4 storm hit on Thursday

The Jenkins left their room for a few moments when the storm hit, before returning a few minutes later to collect their personal belongings

The Jenkins left their room for a few moments when the storm hit, before returning a few minutes later to collect their personal belongings, FOX10 reports. 

When they got back, the entire wall was missing and items, such as sheets and curtains, were being hurled around the room in the wind.

The Bahamas National Emergency Management Authority said on Thursday that Nassau, the most populated island of New Providence in the central Bahamas, is copping the worst of the storm.

'We are experiencing the brunt of the hurricane force winds now so we just have to wait and see how we fare over the next five of six hours,' an official said, according to the Weather Channel.

The Bahamas National Emergency Management Authority said on Thursday that Nassau, the most populated island of New Providence in the central Bahamas, is getting the worst of the storm. Pictured are downed trees in Nassau

'We are experiencing the brunt of the hurricane force winds now so we just have to wait and see how we fare over the next five of six hours,' a Bahamas official said on Thursday

Electricity was shut off as a precaution ahead of the storm's arrival, and the nation's Prime Minister, Perry Christie, urged residents to prepare for a 'worst case scenario'. Pictured is a power pole that was almost topped in the wind

Dramatic pictures showed trees that had been uprooted in the winds and a gas station that toppled over.

Electricity was shut off as a precaution ahead of the storm's arrival, and the nation's Prime Minister, Perry Christie, urged residents to prepare for a 'worst case scenario'.

There were no deaths reported in the Bahamas on Thursday, but terrified locals still said it was like nothing they had ever seen.

'This is the most intense hurricane I have ever been through,' Jose Ageed, a 43-year-old Nassau resident said. 'And I have been through many.'

Marco Beckford rakes up debris from a storm drain as he begins cleanup near a damaged gas station in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Nassau, Bahamas

The roof of a garage was blown off by Hurricane Matthew when it hit Nassau, the Bahamas, on Thursday 

Two residents standing in the street have water almost up to their knees in the aftermath of the massive Category 4 storm

The storm has already torn through Haiti and caused at least 340 deaths on the country's southwest peninsula and in the Dominican Republic, with the number expected to rise in coming days.

Hurricane Matthew is the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in more than a half century. 

Bodies of the storm's victims started to appear as waters receded in some areas two days after 145 mph winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee. 

Those killed in Haiti included a woman and her six-year-old daughter who frantically abandoned their flimsy home and headed to a nearby church to seek shelter as Matthew surged in early Tuesday, said Ernst Ais, mayor of the town of Cavaillon.

There were no deaths reported in the Bahamas on Thursday, but terrified locals still said it was like nothing they had ever seen

A damaged gas station is seen in Nassau, New Providence island in the Bahamas, on October 6, 2016, after Hurricane Matthew tore through the islands

The storm has already torn through Haiti and caused at least 299 deaths on the country's southwest peninsula and in the Dominican Republic, with the number expected to rise in coming days. Pictured are what remains of some trees in Les Cayes, Haiti

'On the way to the church, the wind took them,' Ais told The Associated Press.

'Devastation is everywhere,' said Pilus Enor, mayor of the town of Camp Perrin. 

'Every house has lost its roof. All the plantations have been destroyed... This is the first time we see something like this.' 

In the nearby seaport of Les Cayes, many people searched for clean water as they lugged mattresses and other belongings they were able to salvage.

A group of locals carry a coffin as they try to cross the river La Digue after the only bridge over the water collapsed when Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti

Some of the damaged caused to trees outside a church, which was also hit by the storm, is seen in Les Cayes, Haiti

Victor Farah and her daughter sit in the ruins of their home destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes on Thursday after the storm passed through

'Nothing is going well,' said Jardine Laguerre, a teacher. 'The water took what little money we had. We are hungry.'

Authorities and aid workers were just beginning to get a clear picture of what they fear is the country's biggest disaster in years.

Interior Minister Francois Anick Joseph said food and water were urgently needed, noting that crops had been leveled, wells inundated by seawater and some water treatment facilities destroyed.

Officials with the Pan American Health Organization also warned about a possible surge in cholera cases because of the widespread flooding caused by Matthew. 

People are seen standing near a church in Haiti that had its roof torn off by Hurricane Matthew on Tuesday and Wednesday

In ruins: Villages were leveled by 145 mph winds as the Category four storm brought floods, wreckage and misery to Haiti on Tuesday and Wednesday

Haiti's cholera outbreak has killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when it was introduced into the country's biggest river from a UN base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed.

Haiti's government has estimated at least 350,000 people need some kind of assistance.

International aid groups are already appealing for donations for a lengthy recovery effort in Haiti, the hemisphere's least-developed and most aid-dependent nation.

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

Destroyed: Homes lay in ruins after the passing of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, on Thursday

Devastating toll: At least 65 people have been killed in Haiti alone by the Category Four storm, officials have said; a further four people were killed in the Dominican Republic

Haiti's interior ministry put the toll in the impoverished Caribbean nation at 108 dead with the number expected to rise; Many were killed by falling trees, flying debris and swollen rivers; the toll will likely rise

In the coming days, U.S. military personnel equipped with nine helicopters were expected to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas.

Aerial footage also illustrated some of the mass devastation caused by the storm, showing villages leveled by the 145 mph winds, with wreckage and misery everywhere.

Civil aviation authorities reported counting 3,214 destroyed homes along the southern peninsula, where many families live in shacks with sheet metal roofs and don't always have the resources to escape harm's way. 

Jean-Michel Vigreux, the country director in Haiti for the nonprofit group CARE, his group hadn't yet been able to communicate with its team in Grande Anse. 'It is very scary,' he said.

No way across: People gather next to a collapsed bridge after Hurricane Matthew passed Petit Goave, Haiti

Matthew is the strongest hurricane in the Caribbean since Felix struck in 2007, a Category Five hurrican which resulted in at least 133 deaths across the Caribbean and Central America

Strong: This NASA satellite data from Wednesday shows Hurricane Matthew over Cuba. It is the most powerful hurricane to hit the Caribbean in almost a quarter of a century

With answers slow to come, some Haitians in the crowded capital were convinced their homeland had been largely spared the kind of suffering that severe weather has wrought in the past.

'The news on the radio doesn't seem nearly as bad as it could have been,' upholsterer Daniel Wesley said as he walked down a rain-slicked street in downtown Port-au-Prince which was largely spared from the storm. 

In nearby Cuba, Matthew blew across that island's sparsely populated eastern tip, destroying dozens of homes and damaging hundreds in the island's easternmost city, Baracoa. But the government oversaw the evacuation of nearly 380,000 people and strong measures were taken to protect communities and infrastructure.

The storm made landfall in the US in the early hours of Friday morning, with a State of Emergency declared in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

Men push a motorbike through a street flooded by a river that overflowed from heavy rains caused by Hurricane Matthew in Leogane, Haiti, on Wednesday

A man sits inside of what is left of his home with his cousin after it was damaged by Hurricane Matthew in Saint-Louis, Haiti, on Wednesday