Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico brace for Hurricane Maria
THE WICKED 2017 hurricane season began delivering more punishing blows as Hurricane Maria racked across the Caribbean with “potentially catastrophic” winds of 260km/h.
To the north, Hurricane Jose churned on a path to brush the Northeast coast with raging surf and potentially damaging gusts. Maria strengthened to the highest-level Category 5 yesterday after making landfall on the island of Dominica.
The storm carries the potential to cause widespread destruction along its path from the central Lesser Antilles through Puerto Rico, including some areas battered earlier this month by the huge Hurricane Irma.
“Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous Category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico,” the National Hurricane Centre said yesterday.
Jose is capable of producing coastal flooding and pockets of damaging wind from eastern Long Island to coastal Massachusetts, its effects are most likely to resemble those of a strong northeaster – rather than a devastating hurricane.
Maria has intensified which is a potentially disastrous scenario for the islands it will sweep across.
At 9.35pm local time on Monday, the storm made landfall in Dominica, causing widespread damages as it ploughed west-north-west at 15km/h. It was the first Category 5 storm to strike Dominica in recorded history.
The country’s prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, said in a Facebook post: “We have lost all that money can buy. My focus now is in rescuing the trapped and securing medical assistance for the injured. We will need help, my friend, we will need help of all kinds.”
The hurricane centre said fluctuations in intensity were possible as the storm made its way to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Ricolat night into today.
Hurricane-force winds extend outwards up to 50km from the centre and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 200km.
At 8am local time yesterday, the storm was positioned 275km southeast of St Croix moving to the westnorth-west at 15km.
On Monday, the storm cut across not only Dominica but also Martinique, French Guadeloupe and St Lucia, where hurricane warnings were in effect. It was also passing close to and affecting St Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, under hurricane warnings, but perhaps positioned far enough north of the storm to miss its brunt.
The worst part of the storm was expected to pass a good deal south of beleaguered Barbuda and Antigua, reeling from Hurricane Irma, but they could get brushed by strong wind gusts and heavy showers.
Maria is predicted to pass through a patch of the Caribbean free of islands before potentially closing in on St Croix late in the day or at night. – Washington Post
IT’S FORECAST TO REMAIN AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY 4 OR 5 WHILE IT APPROACHES