Hurricane Maria Update

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 6 a.m. — After developing from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane in just 30 hours, Hurricane Maria caused significant damage on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, causing “widespread devastation, according to the country’s prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit. "So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace. My greatest fear for the morning is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury and possible deaths as a result of likely landslides triggered by persistent rains."

Hurricane Maria is now taking aim at the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. After it hit Dominica Monday night, the hurricane roared west on its path as a Category 4 storm with winds at nearly 155 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maria grew to a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale Monday night, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph at 8 p.m. ET. It made landfall in Dominica soon afterward, lashing "The Nature Isle" with strong winds that ripped roofs from their houses.

"Some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next day or two, but Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico," the hurricane center said in its 2 a.m. Tuesday update on Maria.

Here, you can watch the eye pass directly over Dominica:

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.”

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Hurricane Maria is forecast to strengthen rapidly today and tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 19, as it follows the same path through the Caribbean islands that Hurricane Irma took just a few days ago. Local residents are desperately trying to prepare for another potentially catastrophic storm.

"Significant strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Maria is expected to become a dangerous major hurricane before it moves through the Leeward Islands," according to the National Hurricane Center's latest update.

In its 5 a.m. update, the hurricane center placed Maria about 100 miles east of Martinique and about 130 miles east-southeast of Dominica. The storm is currently a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 mph, and is forecast to continue moving toward the eastern Caribbean at 13 mph.

"Maria is likely to be at category 3 or 4 intensity by the time it moves into the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea," the center said in its forecast.

Maria is one of three storms currently in the Atlantic Ocean, but it poses the most danger to Caribbean islands already battered by Hurricane Irma.

"On the forecast track, the center of Maria will move across the Leeward Islands late today (Monday) and tonight and then over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea Tuesday and Tuesday night," the NHC said.

Hurricane warnings for Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat have been issued. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Lucia. A hurricane warning is typically issued 36 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds.

A hurricane watch has now been extended to Puerto Rico and its satellite islands Vieques and Culebra. A watch was earlier put in place for the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten/St. Martin, St. Barthelemy and Anguilla —many of which were devastated when Irma barreled through the Caribbean. A hurricane watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds.

Maria may then target the Turks and Caicos Islands by Friday.

It remains too early to determine if Maria will threaten the U.S. East Coast next week.

FOR MORE ON THE ISLANDS IMPACTED BY HURRICANE IRMA AND HOW YOU CAN HELP, READ OUR IRMA UPDATE.