Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico two weeks after Irma ravaged the island
Boston — Hurricane Maria slammed into southeastern Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm with the potential to inflict $30bn in damages, just two weeks after Irma ravaged the cash-strapped island. Top winds reached 249km/h as Maria made landfall near Yabucoa at about 6.15am local time (12.15pm SA time) on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory. Hurricane-force winds extend as far as 95km from its centre, the storm surge may reach 2.7m and as much as 63cm of rain may fall in some areas. Maria is the fourth major hurricane and 13th storm in an active Atlantic season that’s wreaked havoc from Texas to the Caribbean, and left dozens dead. It could cause $30bn in damage to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, according to Chuck Watson, a disaster modeller for Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia. That’s on top of an estimated $143bn in damage in the US alone from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. "The wind is going to be the main damaging issue," said Jeff Masters, co-f...
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