'Potentially Catastrophic’ Category Hurricane Maria Makes Landfall on Dominica

The US National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Maria made landfall on Dominica as a Category 5 storm.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Hurricane Maria has become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm as it made landfall on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, the US National Hurricane Center said.

#Maria is now a category 5 #hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h)- See the special advisory @ https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/1G6WMaaVEx

— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) September 19, 2017

​“Maria becomes a potentially catastrophic category 5 hurricane … the eye and the intense inner core is nearing Dominica,” NHC reported earlier.

The hurricane has sustained winds of 160 miles per hour, the center said, according to forecast models that it will move towards Puerto Rico and the island of Hispaniola.

Maria is the fourth strong hurricane recorded in the Atlantic basin this year that comes nearly a week after Hurricane Irma, which is is considered to be one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, devastated numerous Caribbean islands and the southeast portion of the United States, and left more than 80 people dead.