Hurricane Maria roared onto Puerto Rico early Wednesday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, blasting the island’s most populated areas with life-threatening gusts nearing 200 mph after slamming smaller Caribbean islands along the way.
Maria made landfall near Yabucoa on the island’s southeast coast around 6:15 a.m., striking the area with sustained winds of 145 mph that are expected to last for 12 to 24 hours, forecasters said.
Maria had previously been a Category 5 storm with 175 mph winds.
“Maria will bring a potentially catastrophic combination of storm-surge flooding, destructive winds and flooding rain to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said Wednesday.
The number of power outages spiked on Puerto Rico as Maria approached, with the storm now centered about 15 miles southeast of the capital of San Juan, and moving northwest at 10 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
“Maria will bring a potentially catastrophic combination of storm-surge flooding, destructive winds and flooding rain to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.”
– Meteorologist Janice Dean
“This is going to be an extremely violent phenomenon,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said. “We have not experienced an event of this magnitude in our modern history.”
Video taken moments ago in #SanJuan – as #MariaPR ravages through #PuertoRico, help us recover by donating to https://t.co/xSFEX78SdW pic.twitter.com/csH0CKXySK
— PRFAA (@PRFAA) September 20, 2017
More than 11,000 people were in shelters, Rossello said.
Metal roofs were already flying and windows were breaking as Maria approached Puerto Rico before dawn, with nearly 900,000 people without power and one tree falling on an ambulance.
Walls blown in at restaurant I ate dinner at 12 hours ago #Fajardo #HurricaneMaria pic.twitter.com/xvCkcInYSF
— Mike Theiss (@MikeTheiss) September 20, 2017
In San Juan, Maria’s fierce winds toppled trees and ripped away outside materials of high-rise buildings in the city, while people calling local radio stations reported that doors were flying off hinges and a water tank flew away in the island’s southern region.
Those who sought shelter at a coliseum in San Juan were moved to the building’s second and third floors, reported radio station WKAQ 580 AM.
As Maria approached, President Donald Trump offered his support via Twitter: “Puerto Rico being hit hard by new monster Hurricane. Be careful, our hearts are with you- will be there to help!”
Puerto Rico being hit hard by new monster Hurricane. Be careful, our hearts are with you- will be there to help!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2017
Maria ties for the eighth strongest storm in Atlantic history, when measured by wind speed. Coming in second is this year’s Irma, which had 185 mph winds and killed 38 people in the Caribbean and another 36 in the U.S. earlier this month.
The National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, warned of “catastrophic damage” from Maria’s winds, as well as “life-threatening rainfall flooding having possible devastating impacts” in a hurricane local statement issued Tuesday evening.
“Locations may be uninhabitable for weeks or months,” according to the NWS.
Puerto Rico had long been spared from a direct hit by hurricanes that tend to veer north or south of the island. The last Category 4 hurricane landfall in Puerto Rico occurred in 1932, and the strongest storm to ever hit the island was San Felipe in 1928 with winds of 160 mph.
A report from a U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter mission late Tuesday confirmed Maria had strengthened as it neared the U.S. Virgin Islands as maximum sustained winds increased to 175 mph and central pressure dropped to 909 mb, a lower pressure than Irma had at any time.
“This is the lowest pressure for any Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Dean’s 905-mb minimum central pressure in August 2007,” Dean said. “It is also the 10th-most-intense hurricane in Atlantic Basin history, based on minimum central pressure.”
The storm’s center passed near St. Croix overnight Tuesday, prompting U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp to insist that people remain alert. St. Croix was largely spared the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Irma on the chain’s St. Thomas and St. John islands just two weeks ago. But this time, the island would experience five hours of hurricane force winds, Mapp said.
“For folks in their homes, I really recommend that you not be in any kind of sleepwear,” he said during a brief news conference. “Make sure you have your shoes on. Make sure you have a jacket around. Something for your head in case your roof should breach. … I don’t really recommend you be sleeping from 11 o’clock to 4 (a.m.). … Be aware of what’s going on around you.”
Maria causes ‘widespread devastation’ in Caribbean
Before slamming Puerto Rico, Maria caused widespread destruction across several islands in the Caribbean, leaving at least 9 dead.
The storm killed one person in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe when a tree fell on them Tuesday, and two people aboard a boat were reported missing off La Desirade island, just east of Guadeloupe, officials said.
About 40 percent of the island — 80,000 homes — were without power and flooding was reported in several communities.
The storm also blew over the tiny eastern Caribbean island of Dominica late Monday, where Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit sent out a series of dramatic posts on his Facebook page.
“Initial reports are of widespread devastation. So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace,” he wrote.
He added that that his own roof had blown away.
“The winds are merciless! We shall survive by the grace of God,” Skerrit wrote before communications went down.
An adviser to Skerrit said as of Wednesday morning there have been seven confirmed deaths in the Caribbean country from Maria.
Hartley Henry didn’t give details about how the deaths occurred, and said the country is “in a daze” with no electricity or power and little to no communications.
Henry added in a statement that there has been a “tremendous loss of housing and public buildings” in the mountainous island but the full extent of the damage isn’t known.
Maria’s path after Puerto Rico still to be watched
After crossing Puerto Rico, Maria is going to pass near the Dominican Republic on Thursday, then the Turks and Caicos Friday, according to Dean.
Hurricane watches been issued for the Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas, which are still recovering from Irma.
The eastern Dominican Republic is forecast to pick up 4 to 8 inches of rain, with isolated 12-inch amounts, and may also see hurricane-force winds develop as soon as Wednesday night.
“There is still some uncertainty, as any slight jog of the eyewall north could keep the most intense winds off the coast of the Dominican Republic,” Dean said.
As far as any potential impacts from Maria to the East Coast of the U.S, Dean said “it remains too early to determine.”
