Maria lashes Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo: Hurricane Maria thrashed parts of the Dominican Republic with heavy rain and high winds as it passed near its east and north coasts yesterday after making a direct hit on Puerto Rico that caused severe flooding and cut power to the entire island.
Maria has killed at least 10 people as it raged through the Caribbean, the second major hurricane to do so this month, and the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said it was headed toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas, bringing dangerous storm surges and torrential rain.
It ripped roofs off almost all structures on the island country of Dominica, where seven people were confirmed dead.
The toll is expected to climb when searches resume at daybreak.
Maria was ranked as a Category Four storm, near the top end of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of up to 250kmph, when it hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the strongest storm to hit the US territory in nearly 90 years.
It ripped apart homes, snapped power lines and turned roadways into torrents laden with debris as it cut a diagonal swath across the island.
The entire island of 3.4 million people was under a flash flood warning early yesterday as the storm was forecast to dump 50cm to 76cm of rain on much of Puerto Rico through Friday, according to the NHC.
The island’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, said the only fatality immediately reported was a man struck by a piece of lumber hurled by high winds.
“It’s nothing short of a major disaster,” Rossello said in a CNN interview, adding it may take months for the island’s electricity to be completely restored. Earlier he imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the island.
The streets of Puerto Rico’s historic Old Town in the capital, San Juan, were strewn with broken balconies, air conditioning units, shattered lamp posts, fallen power lines and dead birds. Few trees escaped unscathed.
Maria weakened as it went over land in Puerto Rico and picked up strength early yesterday as it passed over warm Caribbean waters.
The island’s recovery could be complicated by its financial woes as it faces the largest municipal debt crisis in U.S. history.
Both its government and the public utility have filed for bankruptcy protection amid disputes with creditors. — Reuters