Hurricane Maria batters Dominica, heads toward Puerto Rico

World : The Caribbean island of Dominica has been ‘devastated’ by Category 5 Hurricane Maria as it made landfall on Monday night, the country’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit  tells CNN.  He said , ” We’re just waiting for daybreak to do an assessment of the damage. Our first order of business will be search and rescue to ensure we can account for every single citizen and resident  who were on the island during this devastating hurricane.” Maria has since been downgraded to a Category 4 with sustained winds of 155 kph. The storm was following a path near many of the islands affected by Hurricane Irma less than two weeks ago, devastating many of these tiny islands before barreling into Florida.

The US National Hurricane Center has posted storm warnings for Guadeloupe, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Martinique, St Lucia, and the US and British Virgin Islands. It’s strength is expected to fluctuate but it could still be a Category 5 by the time it reaches Puerto Rico late Tuesday or Wednesday. “Maria is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane during the next couple of days,” the National Hurricane Center stated Monday.  Puerto Rico sheltered many of the evacuees who fled Hurricane Irma’s wrath in other Caribbean islands.