San Juan, Puerto Rico - Hurricane Maria
slammed into Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the strongest storm to
hit the US territory in nearly 90 years, ripping windows from
their fixtures and sending debris hurtling through the streets
as it approached the capital, San Juan.
Maria, the second major hurricane to roar through the
Caribbean this month, made landfall near Yabucoa, on the
southwest coast of the island of 3.4 million people. Thousands
of people were seeking safety in shelters.
Carrying winds of 233km/h and driving
high storm surges, Maria's eye was located about 25km southwest of San Juan at 9am ET (1300 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center said.
Trees are toppled in a parking lot at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Picture: Hector Retamal/AFP
Buildings trembled as the storm battered San Juan and sent
torn off pieces of metal barricades clattering along streets.
Broken windows, mangled awnings and gutters dangled
haphazardly from buildings or were ripped off entirely. Toilets
bubbled noisily and belched foul air as the hurricane rumbled
through the city's water and sewage lines.
On its passage through the Caribbean, Maria killed at least
one person in the French territory of Guadeloupe and devastated
the tiny island nation of Dominica.
Hurricane Irma, which ranked as one of the most powerful
Atlantic storms on record, also left a trail of destruction in
several Caribbean islands and Florida this month, killing at
least 84 people in the Caribbean and the US mainland.
"We have not experienced an event of this magnitude in our
modern history," Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a
televised message on Tuesday.
"Although it looks like a direct hit with major damage to
Puerto Rico is inevitable, I ask for America’s prayers," he
said, adding the government had set up 500 shelters.
Maria was expected to dump as much as 66cm of
rain on parts of Puerto Rico, the NHC said. Storm surges, when
hurricanes push ocean water dangerously over normal levels,
could be up to 9 feet (2.7 metres). The heavy rainfall could
cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, it added.
"This a catastrophe we're going through," said Madeline
Morales, 62, a saleswoman in San Juan who abandoned her coastal
home before the storm hit to seek refuge in a hotel on higher
ground.
Maria was set to be the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto
Rico since 1928, when the San Felipe Segundo hurricane slammed
the island and killed about 300 people, the National Weather
Service said.
Before hitting Puerto Rico, Maria passed west of St. Croix,
home to about half of the US Virgin Islands' 103,000
residents, as a rare Category 5 storm, the top of the five-step
Saffir-Simpson scale. Authorities expected to start assessing
storm damage on St. Croix from daybreak.
Maria was on a track to pass just north of the northeast
coast of the Dominican Republic on Wednesday night and Thursday,
the NHC said. So far, it did not look likely to threaten the
continental United States.
This, GOES-16 satellite image taken on Tuesday and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows Hurricane Maria southeast of Puerto Rico. Picture: NOAA via AP
"This is going to be catastrophic for our island," said
Grisele Cruz, who was staying at a shelter in the southeastern
city of Guayama. "We're going to be without services for a long
time."
Irma grazed north of Puerto Rico but did not hit the island
directly. But it storm knocked out power for 70 percent of the
island, and killed at least three people.
Puerto Rico is grappling with the largest municipal debt
crisis in US history, with both its government and the public
utility having filed for bankruptcy protection amid disputes
with creditors.
Maria plowed into Dominica, a mountainous country of 72,000
people, late on Monday causing what Prime Minister Roosevelt
Skerrit called "mind-boggling" destruction.
North of Dominica, the French island territory of Guadeloupe
appeared to have been hit hard. The Guadeloupe prefecture said
one person was killed by a falling tree and at least two people
were missing in a shipwreck.
Some roofs had been ripped off, roads were blocked by fallen
trees, 80,000 households were without power and there was
flooding in some southern coastal areas, the prefecture said in
Twitter posts.
There were hurricane warnings and watches in effect for the
U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra, and
Vieques, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the southeastern Bahamas
and the Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to Puerto Plata.