A look at category five Hurricane Maria making landfall on Dominica tonight… via GOES 16 pic.twitter.com/HYAUp1Nu1Y
— James Spann (@spann) September 19, 2017
Over the course of Monday, Hurricane Maria — which is churning down the same path as Irma — rapidly intensified from a Category 3 storm all the way up to Category 5. Late in the evening, the hurricane made landfall over the island nation of Dominica with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. The storm caused such immediate and intense flooding that Dominica’s prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, needed to be rescued from the rising waters.
These two Facebook posts, although brief, tell how Skerrit’s roof disappeared as a result of the storm’s intense winds. Fortunately, he was plucked from harm’s way while his home continued to flood.
And it’s no wonder that the situation grew so dire, for FEMA task force lead Michael Lowry tweeted this gif to reveal this frightening visual of Maria as she passed squarely over Dominica.
The most violent part of Category 5 #Maria now squarely over #Dominica, in the dark of night (prelim, non-op GOES-16 loop via @UWSSEC) pic.twitter.com/5LG3Kxgcon
— Michael Lowry (@MichaelRLowry) September 19, 2017
Maria’s not only terrorizing Dominica but will soon bring its winds and heavy rains to Guadeloupe, St. Kitts, Navis, and Montserrat. Further, the storm is expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain in some places while bringing a storm surge of up to 11 feet throughout the Caribbean. Before all is said and done, Maria could become the first hurricane in 85 years to land as a direct hit on Puerto Rico. And it’s now the second Atlantic Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in 2017.
(Via Weather.com & CNN)