Maria ravages Puerto Rico

Hurricane Maria thrashed parts of the Dominican Republic with heavy rain and high winds as it passed near its east and north coasts yesterday after making a direct hit on Puerto Rico that caused severe flooding and cut power to the entire island.

Maria has killed at least 10 people as it raged through the Caribbean, the second major hurricane to do so this month, and the US National Hurricane Canter (NHC) said it was headed toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas, bringing dangerous storm surges and torrential rain.

It ripped roofs off almost all structures on the island country of Dominica, where seven people were confirmed dead. The toll is expected to climb when searches resume at daybreak.

Maria was ranked a Category 4 storm, near the top end of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of up to 250 km per hour, when it hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the strongest storm to hit the US territory in nearly 90 years.

It ripped apart homes, snapped power lines and turned roadways into torrents laden with debris as it cut a diagonal swath across the island.

The entire island of 3.4 million people was under a flash flood warning early yesterday as the storm was forecast to dump 20 to 30 inches of rain on much of Puerto Rico through today, according to the NHC.

It was classified a Category 5 storm when it struck Dominica on Monday night with devastating force. Based on an aerial survey, about 95 percent of roofs in Dominica, one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean, were damaged or destroyed by Maria.