Hurricane Maria Hits Puerto Rico: Photos And Videos Of The Storm

Update: Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 3:15 p.m. EDT

Hurricane Maria weakened to a Category 3 and moved off of Puerto Rico Wednesday. The island is still facing hurricane force winds, however. Maria has knocked power out for the entire island.

Original Story:

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico Wednesday morning as a powerful Category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm made landfall near the city of Yabucoa, with winds of around 155 mph.

Strong winds whipped the island Tuesday afternoon.

Puerto Rico is home to roughly 3.3 million people, a number of which took shelter from the storm in emergency shelters.

“As of 2:30 a.m. we count 10,059 refugees and 189 pets (in shelters),” tweeted Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

Puerto Rico began evacuations yesterday in preparation for the storm. Meteorologists fear that parts of the island could get as much as two feet of rain. The National Hurricane Center warns that storm surge on the Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands could range from six to nine feet.

“For Irma, we were very prepared,” Rosselló said on CNN. “Unfortunately, of course, now we’re feeling a second storm in two weeks, and this one much more devastating than the first one. Who knows what the damage will be?”

Category 5 Hurricane Irma swept the Caribbean earlier this month, devastating several islands. Puerto Rico missed the brunt of it, but still saw massive power outages because of the storm. Puerto Rico is housing many Irma refugees who will have to live the nightmare all over again.

More than 60 percent of the island was without electrcity. The country is on high alert for flooding and mudslides. Rosselló declared an emergency for Puerto Rico and President Donald Trump made a federal disaster declaration.

The last Category 4 storm to hit the Puerto Rico was in 1932.