Puerto Rico braces for Category 5 Hurricane Maria,

Entire island preparing for devastation as Maria bears down on it

Almost two weeks after Irma, Puerto Rico is preparing for Hurricane Maria, a storm that Monday night became a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph.

“Irma was a monster, and it broke all sorts of historic records, but Maria is going to be worst for the Caribbean and Puerto Rico,” said David Sánchez, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Juan.

At 11 p.m., Maria was sweeping over Dominica. It was headed west-northwest at about 9 mph.

A hurricane warning was issued for Puerto Rico, Culebra and and Vieques. Earlier Monday, hurricane warnings were issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands.

“We shouldn’t even have a little hope that this is not going to hit us hard. This is not the time for that. It is going to hit all Puerto Rico, so all Puerto Rico should get ready for this event,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said.

Rosselló declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. He also warned residents that they must be prepared and that it is a “real threat.”

Sánchez said he couldn’t stress enough how serious people should take this hurricane.

“We had a lot of damage and situations happening, like people that still have no power from Hurricane Irma, and that didn’t even hit us as hard,” he said.

Ernesto Morales of the National Weather Service said Maria could pass through Puerto Rico on Wednesday as a powerful storm and could bring between 12 to 18 inches of rainfall. The island could experience hurricane winds for 24 hours, too.

“If we compare it to other hurricanes, we can get as much water as Texas got with Harvey. It is a lot. We haven’t seen something like this in years,” Sánchez said.

According to the current tracking models, hurricane winds will extend for 25 miles, so all of Puerto Rico will experience hurricane conditions.

Puerto Rico is still recovering from Irma, which knocked out power to 1 million customers. About 62,000 customers — 4 percent — still have no electricity.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said it will continue reconnecting clients as long as the weather conditions allow it, while the emergency preparedness plans are being implemented before Hurricane Maria passes through the Island.

But the number of homes without power could spike if Maria hits the island. Most of Puerto Rico’s power generation plants are in the southern part of the island, where Hurricane Maria is expected to make landfall. According to Ricardo Ramos, director of the Electric Energy Authority, there is a great possibility that the country will be in the dark for an unknown period of time.

María Pérez, who lives in Trujillo Alto, about 10 miles from San Juan, is a government employee and said all workers were all sent home at 1 p.m. Monday to get ready for what she described as a “terrifying hurricane.”

“We are not over Irma yet, and now this happens,” she said. “We understand that it is high season during the hurricane season, but it has been so long since we had a major hurricane strike the island that it is just scary.”

Rosselló said mayors should give priority to the evacuation of the communities of Playita in Salinas, Juana Matos in Cataño, Barrio Islote in Arecibo, and Amelia in Guaynabo.