'Widespread devastation' Dominica PM gives harrowing update on Hurricane Maria

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


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The prime minister of Dominica, a Caribbean island, posted online that Hurricane Maria devastated the island, sweeping away the roofs ‘of almost every’ resident he contacted—including his own.

“I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane,” Roosevelt Skerrit said. “House is flooding.”

He later posted that he was rescued.

The category 4 hurricane is starting a charge into the eastern Caribbean that threatens islands already devastated by Hurricane Irma and holds the possibility of a direct hit on Puerto Rico.

Officials in Guadeloupe said the French island near Dominica probably would experience heavy flooding and warned that many communities could be submerged. In nearby Martinique, authorities ordered people to remain indoors and said they should be prepared for power cuts and disruption in the water supply.

Authorities in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico warned that people in wooden or flimsy homes should find safe shelter before the storm’s expected arrival there on Wednesday.

“You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you’re going to die,” said Hector Pesquera, the island’s public safety commissioner. “I don’t know how to make this any clearer.”

Maria had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph late Monday. The eye was atop Dominica and about 270 miles southeast of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was heading west-northwest at 9 mph.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm would likely intensify over the next 24 hours or longer, noting its eye had shrunk to a compact 10 miles across and warning: “Maria is developing the dreaded pinhole eye.”

[lost in melb.]

Another one! :huh:

[Hal-9000]

I've been dreaming of a Caribbean vacation for years and this is one year I'm happy I didn't go.

Those people have had enough down there, damn...

[Godfather]

I've been dreaming of a Caribbean vacation for years and this is one year I'm happy I didn't go.

Those people have had enough down there, damn...

Same here. Seems like Maria is going to mess up all the spots that the last one missed :(

I can't imagine how scary it must be knowing another storm is coming for those people who already lost everything. Where are they even going to take shelter...

[DemonGeminiX]

There's possibly another one forming behind it.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


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Hurricane Maria lashed the northeastern Dominican Republic early Thursday, after leaving a trail of devastation across the Caribbean.

Puerto Rico was hammered by the storm. The result: An already financially crippled U.S. territory was now dealing with widespread structural damage and the prospect of no electrical power in most areas for weeks or even months.
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"Once we're able to go outside, we're going to find our island destroyed," warned Abner Gomez, Puerto Rico's emergency management director. "The information we have received is not encouraging. It's a system that has destroyed everything in its path."

Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were each facing the prospect of long-term power outrages because of their fragile electrical grids, the New York Times reported.

Puerto Rico's major power supplier, PREPA (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority) filed for bankruptcy in July, after years of underinvestment. Its power plants have a median age of 44 years, while the industry average is 18 years, Reuters reported.

Maria was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall on Puerto Rico on Wednesday. By early Thursday the entire island of 3.4 million people was under a flash flood warning, with the storm expected to dump as much as 30 inches of rain through Friday, according to the hurricane center, Reuters reported.
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Early Thursday, Maria's core was about 70 miles north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with wind gusts of 115 miles per hour, the hurricane center wrote in its 5 a.m. ET Thursday advisory.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for the Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to Puerto Plata, and for Turks and Caicos.

In Puerto Rico, as people waited in shelters or took cover inside stairwells, bathrooms and closets, Maria brought down cell towers and power lines, snapped trees, tore off roofs and unloaded at least 20 inches of rain.

Widespread flooding was reported, with dozens of cars half-submerged in some neighborhoods and many streets turned into rivers. People calling local radio stations reported that doors were being torn off their hinges and a water tank flew away.

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Damage in San Juan, Puerto Rico as Hurricane Maria makes landfall.

"Months and months and months and months are going to pass before we can recover from this," said Felix Delgado, mayor of Catano.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily until Saturday to allow rescue crews and officials to respond to the hurricane's aftermath.

"We are at a critical moment in the effort to help thousands of Puerto Ricans that urgently need aid and to assess the great damage caused by Hurricane Maria," he said. "Maintaining public order will be essential."
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Rossello urged people to have faith: "We are stronger than any hurricane. Together, we will rebuild." He later asked President Donald Trump to declare the island a disaster zone, a step that would open the way to federal aid.

More than 11,000 people were in shelters, the governor said.

In San Juan, Maria's fierce winds toppled trees and ripped away outside materials of high-rise buildings in the city, while people calling local radio stations reported that doors were flying off hinges and a water tank flew away in the island's southern region.
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Widespread flooding was reported across the island, with dozens of cars half-submerged in some neighborhoods and many streets turned into rivers.

Those who sought shelter at a coliseum in San Juan were moved to the building's second and third floors, reported radio station WKAQ 580 AM.

The storm also spawned torrential rainfall across the island, leading to flash flood emergency warnings.

Videos posted to Twitter showed floodwaters rushing through the streets of Guayama on the island's southern coast and other locations.

Many feared extended power outages on the island would further sink businesses struggling amid a recession that has lasted more than a decade.

"This is going to be a disaster," Jean Robert Auguste, who owns two French restaurants and sought shelter at a San Juan hotel, told the Associated Press. "We haven't made any money this month."

As Maria approached, President Donald Trump offered his support via Twitter: "Puerto Rico being hit hard by new monster Hurricane. Be careful, our hearts are with you- will be there to help!"

Maria ties for the eighth strongest storm in Atlantic history, when measured by wind speed. Coming in second is this year's Irma, which had 185 mph winds and killed 38 people in the Caribbean and another 36 in the U.S. earlier this month.

The National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, warned of "catastrophic damage" from Maria's winds, as well as "life-threatening rainfall flooding having possible devastating impacts" in a hurricane local statement issued Tuesday evening.

"Locations may be uninhabitable for weeks or months," according to the NWS.

Puerto Rico had long been spared from a direct hit by hurricanes that tend to veer north or south of the island. The last Category 4 hurricane landfall in Puerto Rico occurred in 1932, and the strongest storm to ever hit the island was San Felipe in 1928 with winds of 160 mph.

A report from a U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter mission late Tuesday confirmed Maria had strengthened as it neared the U.S. Virgin Islands as maximum sustained winds increased to 175 mph and central pressure dropped to 909 mb, a lower pressure than Irma had at any time.

"This is the lowest pressure for any Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Dean's 905-mb minimum central pressure in August 2007," Dean said. "It is also the 10th-most-intense hurricane in Atlantic Basin history, based on minimum central pressure."

The storm's center passed near St. Croix overnight Tuesday, prompting U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp to insist that people remain alert. St. Croix was largely spared the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Irma on the chain's St. Thomas and St. John islands just two weeks ago. But this time, the island would experience five hours of hurricane force winds, Mapp said.

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"For folks in their homes, I really recommend that you not be in any kind of sleepwear," he said during a brief news conference. "Make sure you have your shoes on. Make sure you have a jacket around. Something for your head in case your roof should breach. ... I don't really recommend you be sleeping from 11 o'clock to 4 (a.m.). ... Be aware of what's going on around you."

Maria causes 'widespread devastation' in Caribbean

Before slamming Puerto Rico, Maria caused widespread destruction across several islands in the Caribbean, leaving at least 9 dead.

The storm killed one person in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe when a tree fell on them Tuesday, and two people aboard a boat were reported missing off La Desirade island, just east of Guadeloupe, officials said.

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People walk by a fallen tree off the shore of Sainte-Anne on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe,
early Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, after the passing of Hurricane Maria.

About 40 percent of the island — 80,000 homes — were without power and flooding was reported in several communities.

The storm also blew over the tiny eastern Caribbean island of Dominica late Monday, where Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit sent out a series of dramatic posts on his Facebook page.

"Initial reports are of widespread devastation. So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace," he wrote.

He added that that his own roof had blown away.

"The winds are merciless! We shall survive by the grace of God," Skerrit wrote before communications went down.

An adviser to Skerrit said as of Wednesday morning there have been seven confirmed deaths in the Caribbean country from Maria.

Hartley Henry didn't give details about how the deaths occurred, and said the country is "in a daze" with no electricity or power and little to no communications.

Henry added in a statement that there has been a "tremendous loss of housing and public buildings" in the mountainous island but the full extent of the damage isn't known.

Maria's path after Puerto Rico still to be watched

After crossing Puerto Rico, Maria is going to pass near the Dominican Republic on Thursday, then the Turks and Caicos Friday, according to Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean.

Hurricane watches been issued for the Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas, which are still recovering from Irma.

The eastern Dominican Republic is forecast to pick up 4 to 8 inches of rain, with isolated 12-inch amounts, and may also see hurricane-force winds develop as soon as Wednesday night.

"There is still some uncertainty, as any slight jog of the eyewall north could keep the most intense winds off the coast of the Dominican Republic," Dean said.

As far as any potential impacts from Maria to the East Coast of the U.S, Dean said "it remains too early to determine."