Maria becomes major hurricane, hits Caribbean devastated by Irma

BRIDGETOWN,BARBADOS: Hurricane Maria picked up strength and roared towards the Leeward Islands on Monday on a track that could whip several eastern Caribbean islands with their second major storm this month.

Maria grew into a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffirsimpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 195 km per hour. It was located about 95 km east of Martinique, the US National Hurricane Center said.

It was headed west-northwest at about 17 kph on a track that would put it over the US territory of Puerto Rico by Wednesday.

Maria was expected to be the second major hurricane this year to hit the Leeward Islands, which were hammered by Hurricane Irma, the center said.

Streets were flooded in some residential parts of the island of Barbados, which had been experiencing heavy rain since Sunday as the storm approached.

Maria was expected to bring storm surges - seawater driven ashore by wind - of up to 2.7 metres, the NHC said. Parts of the central and southern Leeward Islands could see as much as 51 cm of rain, it said.

Hurricane and tropical storm warnings and watches were in effect for a string of islands in the area, including the US and Britsh Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda and the French-dutch island of Saint Martin.

Several of those islands were devastated earlier this month when Hurricane Irma rampaged through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded, killing more than 80 people on the islands and the US mainland.

Puerto Rico, a US territory which Irma grazed as it headed toward Cuba and Florida, opened shelters and began to dismantle construction cranes that could be vulnerable to high winds as it prepared for Maria.