Hurricane Irma now Category 4 as it heads for the eastern Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Irma grew into a powerful Category 4 storm Monday as it approached the northeastern Caribbean and was forecast to begin buffeting the region today.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph late Monday afternoon, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said additional strengthening was expected. Irma was centered 490 miles east of the Leeward Islands and moving west at 13 mph.

Emergency officials warned the storm could dump up to 10 inches of rain, unleash landslides and dangerous flash floods and generate waves of up to 23 feet as the storm drew closer.

“We’re looking at Irma as a very significant event,” Ronald Jackson, executive director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, said by phone. “I can’t recall a tropical cone developing that rapidly into a major hurricane prior to arriving in the central Caribbean.”

The storm’s center was forecast to move near or over the northern Leeward Islands late today and early Wednesday, the hurricane center said.

U.S. residents were urged to monitor the storm’s progress in case it should turn northward toward Florida, Georgia or the Carolinas.

“This hurricane has the potential to be a major event for the East Coast. It also has the potential to significantly strain FEMA and other governmental resources occurring so quickly on the heels of [Hurricane] Harvey,” Evan Myers, chief operating officer of AccuWeather, said in a statement.

In the Caribbean, the director of Puerto Rico’s power company predicted storm damage could leave some areas of the U.S. territory without electricity for four to six months.

But “some areas will have power [back] in less than a week,” Ricardo Ramos told radio station Notiuno 630 AM.

The power company’s system has deteriorated greatly amid Puerto Rico’s decade-long recession, and the territory experienced an islandwide outage last year.

Meanwhile, the governor of the British Virgin Islands urged people on Anegada island to leave if they could, noting Irma’s eye was expected to pass 35 miles from the capital of Road Town.

Antigua and Anguilla shuttered schools Monday, and government office closures were expected to follow.

On the tiny island of Barbuda, hotel manager Andrea Christian closed the Palm Tree Guest House. She said she was not afraid even though it would be her first time facing a storm of that magnitude.

“We can’t do anything about it,” Christian said by phone, adding that she had stocked up on food and water. “We just have to wait it out.”