Hurricane Maria made landfall at the United States territory of Puerto Rico on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, now downgraded to a Category 4 storm, made landfall near Yabucoa municipality in Puerto Rico. However, the NHC said that the hurricane continued to be “extremely dangerous” and would be so for much of Wednesday.
At 8 am Atlantic Standard Time (5.30 pm Indian Standard Time), the storm was located about 15 miles (25 kilometres) southwest of San Juan. It had a maximum wind speed of 240 kilometres per hour, and was moving northwest at a speed of 17 kilometres per hour.
The French overseas territory of Guadeloupe was hit hard by the hurricane, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The Guadeloupe administration said that one person was killed by a falling tree and at least two people were missing following a shipwreck. The administration said on its Twitter handle that 80,000 people were without electricity, and there was flooding in some coastal areas.
However, the French island of Martinique escaped the impact of the storm. “In Martinique, reconnaissance operations are still underway but already we can see that there is no significant damage,” Jacques Witkowski, France’s head of civil protection and crisis response, said in Paris. But all communication systems between Martinique and Guadeloupe were cut off.
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