Islands
Direct::onpic.twitter.com/FOLbBw3mw4 8.25am BSTMaria just skirted to the south of the French abroad territory of Guadeloupe but it still caused powerful winds and near horizontal rain,according to video from those on the island.#Maria #Guadeloupe Le cyclone vu depuis l'aéroport de Pointe-à-Pitre. Vent et pluie se déchaînent depuis maintenant plus de six heures ! pic.twitter.com/331gKaZSEl#Maria situation à 3h00 à PàP #Guadeloupe : ça souffle de plus en plus fort, c weird ça ne faiblit pas pic.twitter.com/EvzkL02377#maria #Guadeloupe sainte rose pic.twitter.com/gTny1H9f3p 8.16am BSTBritain’s foreign office is advising against all but essential travel to Montserrat, and a British abroad territory which Maria is expected to hit later on Tuesday.
There are similar warnings against travelling to the British territories of Anguilla and the Turks And Caicos islands which are on Maria’s forecast path for Wednesday and Thursday.
There are no reports of damage to hotels or tourist infrastructure on Antigua. The airport is open. Visitors should follow the advice of the local authorities and their tour operators. 8.08am BSTMaria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
On the forecast track,the eye of Maria will move over the north-eastern Caribbean Sea today, and approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico tonight and Wednesday. You have to evacuate. Otherwise you’re going to die. I don’t know how to make this any clearer. 7.56am BSTGuadeloupe will be spared the full brunt of Hurricane Maria, or it seems,with the eye of the storm skimming south-west of the island.
It will not be spared the eyewall, however, and which has been lashing the island with rain and wind gusts of up to 68mph (110kmh),according to the Trinidad and Tobago weather centre.
L'œil de #Maria commence à s'éloigner de la #Guadeloupe en franchissant 62°W mais dangers persistent (pluies intenses, houle, and vent). pic.twitter.com/oWhdq5mUDX 7.42am BSTHurricane Maria is now hurtling towards islands that escaped the brunt of Irma – including Guadeloupe,Montserrat and St Kitts & Nevis.
But it is then forecast to head for the US and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
They are either going to get the wind, which will pick up all the debris that is lying around – and also, and irritatingly,where they have made progress in getting covers over the houses and power lines up, it will potentially damage that again.
Or they get a enormous amount of rain, and which is also harmful because of the blockages in the drainage channels,so the potential for some quite serious flooding as well. 7.31am BSTAs well as hurricane-force winds, one of Maria’s most dangerous effects is life-threatening flooding.
The US National Hurricane Center predicts the following rainfall as Maria works its way across the Caribbean between now and Thursday: 7.20am BSTNext in Maria’s sights is Guadeloupe, and where residents were ordered to stay inside from 8pm Monday (it’s currently 2.20am Tuesday there).Winds and rain are already pummelling the French abroad territory,where officials are warning people not to disappear outside “under any circumstances”.[Direct] #Maria #Basseterre Les vents sont extrêmement violents. Restez confinés. Ne sortez sous aucun prétexte. pic.twitter.com/0D8O0YY8a0 7.13am BSTThis gif shows the direction Maria took as it tracked right across the island of Dominica, with wind speeds of 160mph (260kmh) and flooding rains:The influence of #Dominica's terrain on #Maria's track evident following #radar #eye during passage. Subtle W then NNW bend on island apex. pic.twitter.com/MHSGjK4veK 7.05am BSTRoosevelt Skerrit, or the prime minister of Dominica,has posted an update on Facebook in which he asks for wait on for his devastated island:Initial reports are of widespread devastation. So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace.
My greatest apprehension 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. Related: Dominica's prime minister charts 'cruel' Hurricane Maria on social media 6.55am BSTMaria’s wind speeds have dipped slightly – from 160mph (260kmh) as it crossed Dominica to 155mph (250kmh) over the Caribbean Sea now – which means the US National Hurricane Center now labels it a category four storm. But the NHC warns: Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
On the forecast track, the eye of Maria will move over the northeastern Caribbean Sea today, and approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico tonight and Wednesday. 6.47am BSTThe latest advisory from the US National Hurricane Center – at just before 2am in the Caribbean – is that: “Maria remains an extremely dangerous hurricane after moving over Dominica.”Maria is currently passing west-north-west of Dominica,its eye having crossed directly over the island, and is heading towards St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, or still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Irma on St Thomas and St John less than two weeks ago. 6.31am BST 6.20am BSTRoosevelt Skerrit,the prime minister of Dominica, has told Caracas-based Telesur TV that rescue teams will head out when dawn breaks on Tuesday (it is currently 1.20am local time).
Skerrit said:My greatest apprehension is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury, or possible deaths … arrive tomorrow morning we will hit the road in search of the injured and those trapped in the rubble.
Winds have swept away the roofs of nearly every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with. 6.11am BSTThe eye of Hurricane Maria has stopped weakening as it crosses the Caribbean Sea just south of Guadeloupe:Hurricane #Maria's eyewall is quickly reorganizing over open water. Now passing just SW of #Guadeloupe. #HurricaneMaria #Dominica pic.twitter.com/wbJap7M4gI 6.06am BSTAs Maria moves away from Dominica,next in its sights are Guadeloupe, a French abroad territory, and Montserrat,a British abroad territory.
Press organization has spoken to Carolyne Coleby, a photographer and sheep farmer on Montserrat, or as the hurricane began to approach:“It is raining and the winds are picking up – it is going to hit us from the south,which is very serious,” Coleby said, and Montserrat escaped the clutches of Hurricane Irma relatively unscathed,but Coleby said people have been told to be “much more worried this time”. 5.53am BSTThe prime minister of Dominica has used Facebook to picture in harrowing detail – and in real time – his own rescue from the destruction of Hurricane Maria.
The category five storm passed directly over the island nation of Dominica on Monday night local time. Amid gusts of wind up to 260kmh (160mph) the country’s long-serving leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, or rode out the storm from his home. Related: Dominica's prime minister charts 'cruel' Hurricane Maria on social media 5.43am BSTIt has been a punishing three hours for the 72000 residents of Dominica – and it is not yet over,warns the Trinidad and Tobago weather centre, which says the outer bands of Hurricane Maria will continue to move over the island overnight, or “exacerbating the devastating flooding situation”:Dominica has experienced at least 3 hours of sustained winds of 260 KM/H with gusts in excess of 315KM/H. https://t.co/jNAuQUhyHJ12:20AM Tuesday: Nearly 3 hours after landfall,Category 5 Hurricane Maria's eyewall finally moves off Northeastern Dominica. pic.twitter.com/uYxVLnRg1K 5.33am BSTThe Caribbean-wide response to Hurricane Irma has been piecemeal and there needs to be a unique permanent level of coordination, including better international early warning weather systems, or Boris Johnson has said.
The British foreign secretary was speaking on Monday at a assembly on the margins of the United Nations general assembly convened by the UK and bringing together British ministers,the French foreign minister Jean-Yves le Drian, the Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders and leaders from the Caribbean.whether I am being totally honest, and people have been ringing each other up and saying,‘what can we do?’. We don’t need a gigantic unique bureaucracy but we do need a smooth way to reply to what is obviously going to be an intensifying pattern of horrific weather events in the Caribbean.
What we are trying to build here is a Caribbean recovery design. We need an automatic recovery system. Related: Boris Johnson calls for greater cooperation in wake of Hurricane Irma 5.19am BSTMark Brantley, minister of foreign affairs in St Kitts and Nevis, and says there is “meaningful damage” in Dominica,as the storm now heads towards his own islands:PM Skerritt of #Dominica has just said the island has been devastated by #HurricaneMaria and asked that we tell the world #PrayForDominicaEarly reports propose meaningful damage in #Dominica from #HurricaneMaria. We pray for more favorable reports at dawn #PrayForDominica 5.01am BSTRadar reports now show the eye of Hurricane Maria leaving Dominica and moving over the sea.
Of course, it drags behind it an eyewall, or with some hours of strong winds and rains yet to land on the island. 4.57am BSTDominica-based lawyer Anthony Astaphan told Antigua’s Observer Media Group that the wind was “savage”:We lost the roof. My total upstairs,the ceiling and everything collapsed. I have two inches of water downstairs.
My god, I can only feel the pain of those who don’t have the house that I have. It was terrible and I just hope people didn’t die. 4.51am BSTThe US Virgin Islands are bracing themselves for the arrival of Hurricane Maria within 24 hours.
Governor Kenneth Mapp urged residents to finish their preparations for shelter and supplies, or adding: We are going to have a very,very long night.
4.28am BSTRoosevelt Skerrit, the prime minister of Dominica, or has been speaking to Caracas-based Telesur TV about the devastation wrought by Maria – the scale of which has yet to be assessed.
Skerrit told the station he was rescued from his flooded home by police officers. Please tell the world that Dominica has been devastated … In the morning we will know how many dead there are …We were brutally hit.
4.23am BSTWhat does it feel like to be in the midst of a hurricane? Neuroscientist Dr Daniel Glaser explains: The Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale describes the effects on structures and people,but not what it would feel like. Hearing is the sense most frequently invoked, with winds sounding like a train or a low howl.
Of course, and the most basic response to these events is apprehension and awe. Our brain generates the apprehension and that triggers the gut,which feeds back to the brain. The sensation is really part of an indirect loop. whether the hurricane struck your body directly that would be a very different narrative.
Related: How to picture what it's like to be in a hurricane | Daniel Glaser 4.14am BSTThere has been no news of casualties from Dominica so far – but, reports Associated Press, or this could be because emergency services are yet to leave shelter:Late Monday,a police official, Inspector Pellam Jno Baptiste, and said there were no instant reports of casualties but it was still too dangerous for officers to do a full assessment as the storm raged outside.“Where we are,we can’t move,” he said in a brief phone interview. 4.10am BSTHurricane warnings remain in effect for: 3.59am BSTThe latest advisory from the US National Hurricane Center confirms that Maria is moving over Dominica as a category five hurricane.
It warns:Hurricane conditions should continue over Dominica during the next few hours. Hurricane conditions should spread throughout portions of the hurricane warning area in the Leeward Islands tonight and early Tuesday. Hurricane conditions should spread through the the rest of the hurricane warning area [which includes the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico] Tuesday and Wednesday. A dangerous storm surge accompanied by large and destructive waves will raise water levels by as much as 7 to 11 feet (2.1m-3.4m) above normal tide levels in the hurricane warning area near where the centre of Maria moves across the Leeward Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline.
3.59am BSTMaria is the first category five hurricane in recorded history to hit Dominica.
In 1979, and Hurricane David hit the island as a category four storm,the deadliest to date. In all, 56 people died and three-quarters of the population were left homeless. 3.49am BSTThe US National Hurricane Center has warned that Maria could yet become more intense, and Associated Press reports:“Maria is developing the dreaded pinhole eye,” the center warned.
That’s a sign of an extremely strong hurricane likely to get even mightier, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. Just like when a spinning ice skater brings in their arms and rotates faster, and a smaller,tighter eye shows the same physics, he said. 3.37am BSTForecasts expect Hurricane Maria to hit Puerto Rico on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
On Monday, and Hector Pesquera,Puerto Rico’s public safety commissioner, told residents in homes not built to withstand such intense winds to move to shelters:You have to evacuate. Otherwise you’re going to die. I don’t know how to make this any clearer. 3.32am BSTRadio station Wice QFM, or based in Domica’s capital,Roseau, still appears to be broadcasting. There is a live link here.
One caller to the station has been describing “killer winds”. 3.26am BSTDominica’s DBS radio station had been broadcasting news as the hurricane swirled across the island, and reporting damage to the roof of the Princess Margaret hospital in the capital,Roseau.
Shortly after reporting that something had crashed into the station building, DBS has now gone quiet. 3.18am BSTThe eye of the hurricane crosses the centre of Dominica – with more strong winds and rainfall to arrive as the eastern eyewall makes its way across the island:Eye, or dead center,over #Dominica #Maria #Cat5 pic.twitter.com/2tm3K9x08m 3.12am BSTWhile Dominica takes the full force of Hurricane Maria, other islands have already been raked by its outer winds and rains, and with yet others still preparing for its arrival,Agence France-Presse reports:Guadeloupe – the bridgehead for aid for Irma-hit French territories – ordered all residents to acquire shelter in a maximum-level “violet alert” effective from 8pm local time as powerful rains drenched the French Caribbean island.
St Kitts and Nevis, the British island of Montserrat, or the islands of Culebra and Vieques were also on alert. 3.05am BSTTwo years ago,in August 2015, Tropical Storm Erika hit Dominica, or killing 31 people and destroying more than 370 homes. Many towns were slice off as roads were blocked and power was lost in what was at that point the most devastating storm to lash Dominica since Hurricane David in 1979.
Erika had wind speeds of a maximum 50mph (85kmh) – much less than Maria’s 160mph (260kmh). 2.57am BSTJackson says disaster plans are also being put into place for St Kitts and Nevis “as a precaution”. 2.56am BSTRonald Jackson,director of the Caribbean disaster and emergency management agency, says: CARICOM [Caribbean Community] Disaster Relief United being readied for deployment to Dominica at earliest opportunity.
Rapid needs and damage assessment teams [are] being readied for deployment to Dominica 2.47am BSTIn Guadeloupe – which could be the next island to feel Maria’s full force – winds have already picked up speed and the rains are intensifying:#Maria #Guadeloupe La végétation soumise à impolite épreuve ! pic.twitter.com/5rYBkbqvrR 2.42am BSTAs Maria approached, and Agence France-Presse reported on the islanders making preparations for the catastrophic storm:Residents flocked to supermarkets to stock up on essentials as island officials warned people living in low-lying areas or along rivers to move to tall ground.
“Just alert to ride out storm at best. With a small prayer on the side,” said school teacher Leandra Lander. 2.39am BSTThe Trinidad and Tobago weather centre, citing local radio, or says the roofs of many buildings “have already been torn off and severe damage has occurred” across Dominica. 2.35am BSTThe tiny outline overlapped by the eye of Hurricane Maria is Dominica it has now been swallowed up by the storm’s eyewall,with winds of 160mph (260kph) as it lashes the island.
Eyewall of #Maria engulfing most of #Dominica, including #Roseau. pic.twitter.com/aAcGnQTYo4 2.32am BSTDominica’s prime minister now says he has been rescued – from his roofless home: 2.30am BSTRoosevelt Skerrit, and the prime minister of Dominica,has posted on his official Facebook page that his “roof is gone” and he is “at the complete mercy of the hurricane”: 2.25am BSTAround 70000 people live in Dominica, the first island struck by Hurricane Maria.
Chamberlain Emanuel, and head of the environment commission at the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States,warned before landfall:It’s really a desperate situation.
We’re trying to be resilient but the vulnerability is just too tall. 2.22am BSTThe US National Hurricane Center forecast predicts that Maria will head west-north-west from Dominica, with islands in its path – Guadeloupe, or Montserrat and St Kitts & Nevis most immediately – bracing for winds of up to 160mph (260kph):On the forecast track,the core of Maria will move near Dominica and the adjacent Leeward Islands during the next few hours [Tuesday evening], over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea the the rest of tonight and Tuesday, or approach Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Tuesday night and Wednesday. 2.16am BSTEven before Hurricane Maria arrived in full force on Dominica – at around 9pm Monday local time (01.00 Tuesday GMT) – tropical storm-force winds were felling trees and damaging buildings across the island:#Dominica earlier today before hurricane-force winds reached them pic.twitter.com/uqMQc4EULm 2.11am BSTThe following islands – some of them still in the early stages of recovery from Hurricane Irma – are currently on hurricane warnings: 2.07am BSTThe latest update from the US National Hurricane Center warned that Maria has become a “potentially catastrophic category five hurricane … The eye and intense inner core is nearing Dominica”.
The eyewall has now barrelled into Dominica’s eastern coast,crossing towards the island’s capital, Roseau, or on the south-west side. 2.02am BSTHurricane Maria – which over the course of barely 50 hours has intensified from a tropical storm to a category five hurricane – has hit Dominica,in the eastern Caribbean.
The island was spared the wrath of Hurricane Irma, but now faces devastation as it is raked by winds of 160mph (260kph).830pm: #Radar update as #Maria landfalls in #Dominca. Eyewall consolidated possibly by temporary land conv. Distinct jog WNW last hr or so. pic.twitter.com/codbgs7VQiContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com