Hurricane Maria Path, Track News Update: Will the 'Potentially Catastrophic' Hurricane Hit Florida?
The Atlantic is being pounded by one hurricane after another. This time, the "potentially catastrophic" Hurricane Maria is on the move, and the question for many Americans is whether it will hit Florida shortly after Irma did.
As of Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center identified Maria as a potentially catastrophic hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour – enough to qualify it as a category 5 hurricane.
In NHC's public advisory #13A for Hurricane Maria, hurricane warnings have been implemented in Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra, and Vieques. Unfortunately, most of these places were devastatingly hit by Hurricane Irma last week.
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Based on NHC's latest forecast cone, Hurricane Maria is not expected to hit any part of Florida before 2 a.m. EDT on Sunday.
However, it is currently pounding Puerto Rico and the U.S. and the British Virgin Islands which started Tuesday and is expected to last until Wednesday. Unfortunately, other parts of the Caribbean are also experiencing the effects of Maria, as of this writing.
One of the extremely affected countries at the moment is Dominica. On Monday evening, Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit went on his official Facebook page to express the devastation he has personally experienced from the hurricane and called it "rough." Then, in another Facebook message, he also shared: "My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding."
The Prime Minister then shared initial reports he had gathered that all pointed to "widespread devastation." Skirret also stated he was primarily concerned about the people who will be physically hurt by Maria more than the property damages it will incur.
"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," Skirret said.
On the other hand, British Virgin Islands' executive Orlando Smith also reached out to his constituents through Facebook and asked that they all follow precautionary measures, saying: "I remind everyone of the curfew that is in effect and ask that you respect it so that our essential teams can do as much as possible to minimize any flood impacts of Maria."
