Hurricane Maria Aftermath In Puerto Rico Shown In Pictures And Video

Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, bringing torrential rain and winds of up to 155 mph. The storm left the entirety of the island – some 3.4 million people – without power, a situation officials said could last for several months.

Maria swept through the island as the first Category 4 storm the region had experienced in 85 years. The extent of the damage on the island was still being surveyed. A lack of electricity, collapsed cellphone towers and impassable roadways made the scope difficult to discern.

Photos revealing the aftermath of the storm showed the wreckage left behind. Downed power lines and electrical debris littered the streets and toppled trees laid amid flooded roads. Houses were ripped off their foundations.

“When we can get outside, we will find our island destroyed,” Abner Gomez, director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency, said Wednesday. “The information we have received is not encouraging. It’s a system that has destroyed everything it has had in its path.”

More than 11,000 people made their way to 500 government shelters in Puerto Rico in preparation for the storm, officials said. The storm decimated 80 percent of homes in Juana Matos in Cataño, a suburb of San Juan, according to the Weather Channel. Cataño Mayor Felix Delgado estimated it would take months and months for the area to recover and that an entirely “new Cataño” would have to be rebuilt.

“The system has basically been destroyed,” said Ricardo Ramos, the CEO of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, according to CNN. Ramos noted the power could be out for up to six months.

While Maria moved away from the island and into the Dominican Republic Thursday, Puerto Rico still remained completely under a flash flood warning, the National Weather Service announced.

“If possible, move to higher ground NOW,” the warning said. “Catastrophic flash flood continues.”

Ten people were killed as the storm forged a path through the Caribbean, including one in Puerto Rico who died after being hit with debris.

“God is with us,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosello tweeted Wednesday. “We are stronger than any hurricane. Together we will rise.”