PETIT-GOAVE - Hurricane Matthew churned toward the Bahamas early Wednesday with a spreading mix of high winds, heavy rains and a dangerous storm surge, leaving widespread damage and human suffering behind in Haiti's poor, rural southwestern peninsula.

At least 11 deaths had been blamed on the powerful storm during its weeklong march across the Caribbean, five of them in Haiti. But with a key bridge washed out, roads impassable and phone communications down, the western tip of Haiti was isolated and there was no word on dead and injured.

PORT-AU-PRINCE— Former Haitian leader Jean-Bertand Aristide has returned to the campaign trail a day after passing out while supporting his political faction's presidential candidate.

The former president was brought to a hospital in the northern city of Cap-Haitien after collapsing while preparing to speak on behalf of Fanmi Lavalas candidate Maryse Narcisse.

On Sept. 17, Aristide told reporters he was feeling better and would continue stumping for Narcisse.

Disturbed by recent arrests involving Uber drivers accused of assaulting passengers, state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, who backed an unsuccessful effort earlier this year to fingerprint drivers of app-based ride-hailing services, predicts lawmakers will need to return to the issue next session while not ruling out filing a new bill of her own.

“This is a sad day. It’s frustrating and horrifying that this is happening in our streets,” the Dorchester Democrat said of the latest reported assault incident in her district involving a Brockton man who drove for Uber.

PORT-AU-PRINCE— A U.N. acknowledgement that it played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti and vows to aid victims were welcomed this week in the Caribbean nation, which has experienced the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history.

While the number of cholera cases has been significantly reduced from the initial outbreak in 2010, the fact that the preventable disease is still routinely sickening and killing Haitians is galling to many.

PORT-AU-PRINCE— Twice-ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide has made a rare public appearance at a street rally to support the candidate of the political faction he founded decades ago.

A growing crowd of Fanmi Lavalas party backers chanted and waved pictures of the ex-president Monday as they jogged alongside a convoy.

Aristide and Lavalas leader Maryse Narcisse waved from a car as they headed to the district of Petionville.