Hurricane Maria Makes Landfall In Dominica As ‘Extremely Dangerous’ Category 5 Storm

Hurricane Maria Makes Landfall In Dominica As ‘Extremely Dangerous’ Category 5 Storm.
Islands still reeling from Irma are bracing for another devastating hit.

Hurricane Maria rapidly intensified and slammed into the Caribbean island of Dominica as an “extremely dangerous” category 5 hurricane late Monday evening, the National Hurricane Center said.

The hurricane made landfall around 9:15 p.m. local time, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. The storm’s eye passed over the island of 73,000 people about 11 p.m. before moving on about 12:20 p.m. It was downgraded to a category 4 storm early Tuesday, but is expected to fluctuate in intensity as it barrels through the islands.

In a series of posts to Facebook, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit described the winds as “merciless” and said at the time he “not dare look” outside.

About 9:20 p.m. local time, Skerrit wrote: “My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding.” Soon after, he reported that he had been rescued.

Skerrit, speaking to a Latin American television station, said the island had been “brutally hit.”

“Please tell the world that Dominica has been devastated,” he said, according to The Guardian. “In the morning we will know how many dead there are.”

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Irma began carving a path of destruction across the Caribbean, several islands in the region are bracing for Maria to take its toll in the next two days as it gains strength.

Army soldiers from the 602nd Area Support Medical Company gather on a beach as they await transport on a Navy landing craft while evacuating in advance of Hurricane Maria, in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Sept.17, 2017.


“Additional rapid strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Maria is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane as it moves through the Leeward Islands and the northeastern Caribbean Sea,” the NHC said at 11 a.m. Monday.

Maria could approach Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by Wednesday. As many as 20 inches of rain are possible across the region, and storm surge could reach as high as 9 feet.

Officials in Puerto Rico urged residents in unsafe homes to evacuate, according to The Associated Press. The island’s governor said 500 shelters were ready to take in up to 133,000 people.

“You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you’re going to die,” Hector Pesquera, the island’s public safety commissioner, said. “I don’t know how to make this any clearer.”

Those islands are still reeling from deaths and damage in the wake of Hurricane Irma. The storm claimed at least three lives in Puerto Rico, at least four in the British Virgin Islands, and at least three in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where electricity may not be restored for months.