Hurricane Maria grows, threatens battered Caribbean
Category 3 storm may make direct hit on Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Maria grew into a Category 3 storm on Monday as it barreled toward a potentially devastating collision with islands in the eastern Caribbean. Forecasters warned it was likely to grow even stronger.
The storm was on a path that would take it near many of the islands already wrecked by Hurricane Irma and then on toward a possi
ble direct strike into Puerto Rico on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane.
“This storm promises to be catastrophic for our island,” said Ernesto Morales with the U.S. National Weather Service in San Juan. “All of Puerto Rico will experience hurricane force winds.”
The U.S. territory on Monday imposed rationing of basic supplies including
water, milk, baby formula, canned foods, batteries, flashlights and other items.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Maria had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph Monday afternoon.
It was centered about 45 miles east-northeast of Martinique — or 70 miles east-southeast of Dominica — and heading west-northwest at 10 mph.
Hurricane warnings were posted for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St.
Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Martinique and St. Lucia. A tropical storm warning was issued for Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten and Anguilla. Forecasters said hurricane
conditions should begin to affect parts of the Leeward Islands by late Monday, with storm surge raising water levels by 6 to 9 feet near
the storm’s center. The storm was predicted to bring 6 to 12 inches of rain across the islands, with more in isolated areas.
Officials in Dominica closed schools and govern- ment offices on Monday and
urged people to evacuate and seek shelters.
“We should not take this storm lightly,” said Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. “Let us continue to pray for our safety.”
Officials in Guadeloupe said the French Caribbean island of would experience extremely heavy flooding starting Monday afternoon, and they warned that many communities would be submerged overnight.
In nearby Martinique, authorities ordered peo- ple to remain indoors and said they should be prepared for power cuts and disrup-
tion in the water supply. All schools and non-essential public services were closed.
The storm has hurricane-force winds that extend about 15 miles from the eye,
and tropical storm force winds out as far as 120 miles. The current forecast track would carry it about 22 miles south of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands late Tuesday and early Wednesday, according to territorial Gov. Kenneth Mapp.
“We are going to have a very, very long night,” Mapp said as he urged people in the territory to finish any preparations.
St. Thomas and St. John are still recovering from a
direct hit by Hurricane Irma, which did extensive damage and caused four deaths on
the two islands. On Wednesday, Maria was expected to be near or over Puerto Rico, which was spared the full brunt of Irma, although much of the island had its power knocked out.
Nearly 70,000 people remain without power, and Gov. Ricardo Rossello on Monday warned of another
widespread outage. Forecasters said the storm would dump up to 18 inches of rain across Puerto Rico and whip the U.S. territory with heavy winds for 12 to 24 hours.