Catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Maria Is Headed For Puerto Rico And The Virgin Islands

National Hurricane Center


Hurricane Maria is headed for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as a powerful Category 5 storm with 165-mph winds.

Maria made landfall on the island of Dominica at 9:15 p.m. ET on Monday and was the first Category 5 storm in history there.

Early reports indicate "widespread devastation" on Dominica.

Forecasts show Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in the direct path of Maria, which could hit late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Hurricane Maria is marauding through the Caribbean, devastating the island of Dominica and now churning toward Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Maria is a powerful, life-threatening Category 5 storm with sustained winds of at least 165 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center's latest forecast and update.

Maria made landfall on the island of Dominica at 9:15 p.m. ET on Monday. Although the destruction is still being assessed, Roosevelt Skerrit, the prime minister of Dominica, wrote on his Facebook page: "Initial reports are of widespread devastation ... The winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with." He hasn't given an update since.

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are directly in Maria's path — the eye of the storm is likely to hit Puerto Rico late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

It's still too soon to say whether Florida or other parts of the continental US will be in the storm's path after it crosses the Caribbean. For now, at least, it looks as though Maria will turn north before reaching Florida.

Hurricane warnings are currently in effect for the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra, Vieques, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and parts of the Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to Puerto Plata. Those locations are likely to see hurricane conditions within the next 36 hours. The NHC says preparations for life-threatening storm surge, rainfall flooding, and destructive winds "should be rushed to completion" in these areas.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect for Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, Sint Maarten, and the Dominican Republic from Puerto Plata to the Haiti border and from Cabo Engano to Punta Palenque.

Hurricane watches — meaning hurricane conditions are possible within the next two days — are in effect for Saba, St. Eustatius, the island of St. Martin, St. Barts, Anguilla, and from Isla Saona to Cabo Engano in the Dominican Republic.

The sex NHC may issue additional watches and warnings on Tuesday.

Hit by a Category 5 storm
A man removes a branch in a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Maria in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe island, France, September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

Maria is the first Category 5 storm in recorded history to hit the island of Dominica. The last and only Category 4 storm to directly hit the island nation, Hurricane David in 1979, killed more than 50 people and left 60,000 homeless.

Dominica is home to roughly 70,000 people.

"The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and this apparently triggered an avalanche of torn away roofs in the city and the countryside," Skerrit wrote on Facebook.

The nearby island of Guadeloupe was also slammed by the storm, with serious flooding, damage to buildings, and widespread power losses.



UPDATE: NOAA's #GOES16 captured this animation of Cat. 5 #HurricaneMaria, just as it made its 9:15 p.m. AST landfall on #Dominica. pic.twitter.com/znEUVZCKzu

— NOAA Satellites PA (@NOAASatellitePA) September 19, 2017