Maria intensifies to rare Category-5 hurricane in Caribbean

PONCE, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - The fourth major Atlantic hurricane of the year, Maria, strengthened into a rare Category 5 storm, as it churned through the eastern Caribbean, bearing down on the tiny island nation of Dominica while on a likely collision course with the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Maria was upgraded to the pinnacle of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale as its maximum sustained winds reached 160 miles per hour (215 km per hour), with higher gusts, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

The center of the storm, described by the NHC as “potentially catastrophic,” was located about 15 miles (72 km) eastsoutheast of Dominica as of 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT), on a track that would put it over Puerto Rico by Wednesday, according to the agency’s latest bulletins.

Dominica, a heavily forested former British colony home to 72,000 people, lies in the eastern Caribbean about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe, to the north, and Martinique, to the south.

Maria would be the most powerful hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in 85 years, since a Category 4 storm swept the US island territory in 1932, Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said. The last major hurricane to strike Puerto Rico directly was Georges, which made landfall there as a Category 3 storm, he said.

The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, urged island residents in a social media advisory to brace for the storm’s arrival, saying, “It is time to seek refuge with a family member, friend or head to a state shelter.”