Caribbean storm heading to Dominican Republic after punishing 155mph winds and life-threatening floods knocked out the US territory’s electricity 
 
 Puerto Rico is without electricity, officials have said, after Hurricane Maria’s strong winds and flooding knocked out the US territory’s power service. 
 
 Island residents endured a day of punishing winds and life-threatening flooding on Wednesday from the category 4 storm, which was the third hurricane to pummel the Caribbean in as many weeks. 
 
 Dominica 'in a daze' after Hurricane Maria leaves island cut off from world Read more 
 
 Maria, now a category 3 storm with winds of 115 mph, is currently lashing the Dominican Republic as is it passes to its north and is expected to move near the Turks and Caicos later on Thursday. It previously hit the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and the US territory of St Croix, where Donald Trump has declared a major disaster. 
 
 “Once we’re able to go outside, we’re going to find our island destroyed,” warned Abner Gomez, Puerto Rico’s emergency management director. “The information we have received is not encouraging.” 
 
 The storm made landfall early on Wednesday morning with winds of 155mph (250kph). Residents said roofs were torn off buildings and doors flew off their hinges. 
 
 Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, ordered a curfew every night until Saturday, from 6pm until 6am, saying the move was essential to maintain order. “Remain in safe places,” Rosello said. Emergency personnel, health workers and reporters are exempt. 
 
 Play Video 0:36 Drone footage shows flooding in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria – video 
 
 Widespread flooding affected the capital, San Juan, and a flash-flood warning was declared in central Puerto Rico, where river levels are at a record high. People took cover in stairwells, bathrooms and closets as trees and communication towers were knocked down in the storm. 
 
 Felix Delgado, mayor of the northern coastal city of Catano, told the Associated Press that 80% of the 454 homes in a neighborhood known as Juana Matos were destroyed. “Months and months and months and months are going to pass before we can recover from this,” he said. 
 
 Mike Brennan, a senior hurricane specialist at the NHC, said Maria would remain “a major, very dangerous hurricane” for the next couple of days and that rainfall would be a problem even after the center of the hurricane moved away from the island. 
 
 Federal officials were reporting that all energy customers in Puerto Rico had been left without power late on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) told the Guardian. 
 
 Where is Hurricane Maria heading? Mapping the storm's path Read more 
 
 The executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), Carlos Mercader, said there were 13,000 evacuees in Puerto Rico’s shelters. This includes people who evacuated from other islands during Hurricane Irma. 
 
 In a meeting broadcast online on Wednesday morning, Mercader warned power was expected to shut down. Because of this, he said, his administration was prioritizing getting generators to help power hospitals, schools, the water system and flood pumps. “In order to help with the floodings, we need electricity,” he said. 
 
 Earlier on Wednesday, Rossello warned the country would lose “a lot of infrastructure”. Homes built after 2011 – when the island, a US territory, introduced newer construction codes – could survive the winds but those in flood-prone areas “have no chance”, he said. 
 
 Maria is the first category 4 hurricane to hit Puerto Rico since 1932. 
 
 As Puerto Rico residents braced for the storm on Tuesday, Trump sent a message of support on Twitter: “Puerto Rico being hit hard by new monster Hurricane,” he said. “Be careful, our hearts are with you – will be there to help!” 
 
 Residents of the British Virgin Islands told the Guardian that it was hard to tell how badly the islands had been hit because the damage inflicted by Hurricane Irma was so fresh. Communication with the territory remained patchy, and a strict curfew was being enforced. 
 
 The hurricane was still category 5 early Wednesday morning when it pummeled St Croix, the largest and southernmost of the US Virgin Islands, and Guadeloupe, where at least one person died and about 40% of homes were without power in the aftermath of the storm. 
 
 British Virgin Islands to face 155mph winds with Hurricane Maria Read more 
 
 There were “multiple casualties” on Dominica, the first island struck by Maria, according to the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and at least 90% of buildings were damaged. The storm took out all of the island’s communication systems, triggered landslides and blocked roads, OECS said. 
 
 Communications with the island were severely disrupted and inhabitants were only able to make contact with the outside world using shortwave radios. 
 
 At least seven people died there, according to Hartley Henry, a chief aid to the prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit. Henry gave an update on the impact of the hurricane after speaking to Skerrit, who he said expected the death toll to increase as they received more information from rural communities. 
 
 Henry said: “The country is in a daze – no electricity, no running water – as a result of uprooted pipes in most communities and definitely to landline or cellphone services on island, and that will be for quite a while.” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Gadi Schwartz, Alex Johnson and Daniel Arkin 
 
 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria is likely to have "destroyed" Puerto Rico, the island's emergency director said Wednesday after the monster storm ripped roofs off buildings and flooded homes. 
 
 Intense flooding was reported across the economically strained U.S. territory, particularly in San Juan, the capital, where many residential streets looked like rivers. 
 
 The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the entire island shortly after 12:30 a.m. ET. 
 
 Yennifer Álvarez Jaimes, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's press secretary, told NBC News that all power across the island was knocked out. 
 
 "Once we're able to go outside, we're going to find our island destroyed," Emergency Management Director Abner Gómez Cortés said at a news briefing. Rosselló imposed a 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew, citing flood warnings and the importance of keeping streets clear for repair and rescue teams. 
 
 San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told MSNBC that the devastation in the capital was unlike any she had ever seen. 
 
 "The San Juan that we knew yesterday is no longer there," Yulín said, adding: "We're looking at four to six months without electricity" in Puerto Rico, home to nearly 3.5 million people. 
 
 Maria, the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico since 1928, had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph when it made landfall as a Category 4 storm near the town of Yabucoa just after 6 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said. 
 
 After weakening, Maria strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane early Thursday, it added. By 2 a.m. ET, it was about 55 miles north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 
 
 Tropical storm conditions were expected to continue on Puerto Rico through the night, but hurricane warnings for the island were lifted late Wednesday as Maria moved away from its the northwest coast. 
 
 "The wind threat has decreased," the hurricane center said, but the threat of rain-gorged floods remains "devastating to catastrophic," it said. Airports in San Juan, Aguadilla and Ponce were ordered closed until Friday at the earliest because of flooding and debris, authorities said. 
 
 "Extreme rainfall flooding may prompt numerous evacuations and rescues," the agency said. "Rivers and tributaries may overwhelmingly overflow their banks in many places with deep moving water." 
 
 Rosanna Cerezo, a lawyer and radio host in metro San Juan, said the city was deluged. It sounded as though bombs were going off when the wind toppled trees around her house, she said. 
 
 Along the beachfront, she said, cement structures had been wrenched from their foundations as islanders scrambled for refuge. 
 
 "Rooftops collapsed, windows shattered," Cerezo said in a text message. "People are huddled in hallways, closets, bathrooms." 
 
 Maria's next move was expected to take it near the coasts of the Dominican Republic and the Turks & Caicos islands, which were under hurricane warnings, and then begin drifting more northwestward by Friday. 
 
 Forecasters said it remained too early to know how close Maria will move to the U.S. mainland, but Domenica Davis, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel, said, "It looks like it will stay in the open waters of the Atlantic." 
 
 Puerto Rico was already struggling to dig itself out of a historic financial crisis. Maria could destroy any progress the territory has made under a year-old economic rehab plan ─ and set it back further. 
 
 Maria was a Category 5 hurricane — the strongest there is — when it hit the Caribbean on Monday night, killing at least seven people on the island of Dominica and one person on Guadeloupe. 
 
 Gadi Schwartz reported from Puerto Rico. Alex Johnson reported from Los Angeles. Daniel Arkin, Daniella Silva and Sandra Lilley reported from New York. Yuliya Talmazan reported from London. ||||| A woman covers herself with a plastic bag as she makes her way to work as Hurricane Maria approaches the coast of Bavaro, Dominican Republic, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Tatiana Fernandez) (Associated Press) 
 
 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Maria (all times local): 
 
 5 a.m. 
 
 Hurricane Maria is lashing the northeastern Dominican Republic early Thursday and is expected to pass near the Turks and Caicos later in the day. 
 
 The Category 3 storm's maximum sustained winds are near 115 mph (185 kph) and the U.S. National Hurricane Center says some strengthening is possible during the next day or so. 
 
 Maria, which has killed at least 10 people across the Caribbean, is centered about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and is moving northwest near 9 mph (15 kph). 
 
 Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans are rebuilding after the hurricane slammed into the U.S. territory Wednesday, crushing concrete balconies and paralyzing the island with landslides, flooding and downed trees. 
 
 ___ 
 
 3:30 a.m. 
 
 Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans stunned by a hurricane that crushed concrete balconies and paralyzed the island with landslides, flooding and downed trees vowed to slowly rebuild amid an economic crisis as rescue crews fanned out across the U.S. territory. 
 
 The extent of the damage is unknown given that dozens of municipalities remain isolated and without communication after Maria hit the island Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in over 80 years. 
 
 Uprooted trees and widespread flooding blocked many highways and streets across the island, creating a maze that forced drivers to go against traffic and past police cars that used loudspeakers to warn people they must respect a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed by the governor to ensure everyone's safety. ||||| SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Maria, the second major storm to ravage the Caribbean in a month, skirted past the Turks and Caicos Islands on Friday, leaving devastation in its wake that included fresh flooding on Puerto Rico two days after pummeling the U.S. island territory. 
 
 Maria, which ranked as the most powerful hurricane to strike Puerto Rico in nearly a century, has killed at least six people there and claimed 19 lives on several other Caribbean islands, according to government officials and local news media accounts. 
 
 But even as Puerto Ricans struggled without electricity to clean up and dig out from tangles of rubble, uprooted trees and fallen power lines, another potential disaster was unfolding in northwestern corner of the island, where a dam was on the verge of collapse. 
 
 The U.S. National Weather Service warned in a series of bulletins that the dam on the rain-engorged Guajataca River, was failing, causing flash flooding in the area and prompting an evacuation of communities below the reservoir by way of buses. 
 
 Roughly 70,000 people live in the area downstream from the earthen dam that was under evacuation, the island’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, said in a late-afternoon news conference. 
 
 Christina Villalba, an official for the island’s emergency management agency, said there was little doubt the dam would give way. 
 
 “It could be tonight, it could be tomorrow, it could be in the next few days, but it’s very likely it will be soon,” she said, adding that authorities were aiming to complete evacuations Friday night. 
 
 Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale and cut a path of destruction through the center of the island on Wednesday, ripping roofs from buildings and triggering widespread flooding. Torrential downpours from the storm sent several rivers to record levels. 
 
 Officials in Puerto Rico, an island of 3.4 million inhabitants, confirmed six storm-related fatalities: three from landslides in Utuado, in the island’s mountainous center; two from drowning in Toa Baja, west of San Juan, and a person near San Juan who was struck by a piece of wind-blown lumber. 
 
 Earlier news media reports had put the island’s death toll as high as 15. 
 
 “We know of other potential fatalities through unofficial channels that we haven’t been able to confirm,” said Hector Pesquera, the government’s secretary of public safety. 
 
 In and around San Juan, the capital, people worked to clear debris from the streets on Friday, some working with machetes, while others began to reopen businesses, though they wondered how long they could operate without power and limited inventory. 
 
 “There’s no water, no power, nothing,” said Rogelio Jimenez, a 34-year-old pizzeria worker. 
 
 Locals stand along a street affected by the overflow of the Soco River in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in El Seibo, Dominican Republic, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas 
 
 Motorists lined up for hours outside the few gasoline stations that were open. “I’ve been here for three and a bit hours,” said Angel Serra, sitting in a blocks-long line hoping to fill up his tank. 
 
 Long lines also formed at the handful of automated teller machines that appeared to be working in the region. 
 
 DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT $45 BLN 
 
 Puerto Rico was already facing the largest municipal debt crisis in U.S. history. A team of judges overseeing its bankruptcy has advised involved parties to put legal proceedings on hold indefinitely as the island recovers, said a source familiar with the proceedings. 
 
 The storm was expected to tally $45 billion in damage and lost economic activity across the Caribbean, with at least $30 billion of that in Puerto Rico, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia. 
 
 Slideshow (20 Images) 
 
 Elsewhere in the Caribbean, 14 deaths were reported on Dominica, an island nation of 71,000 inhabitants. Two people were killed in the French territory of Guadeloupe and one in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Two people died when the storm roared past the Dominican Republic on Thursday, according to local media outlet El Jaya. 
 
 Maria churned past Turks and Caicos and was 295 miles (480 km) east of the Bahamas by 8 p.m. EDT (midnight GMT) on Friday, the NHC said. It was packing sustained winds of up to 125 miles per hour (205 km per hour), making it a Category 3 hurricane, but was expected to gradually weaken over the next two days as it turned more sharply to the north. 
 
 Officials on Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory, had ordered residents to remain indoors and businesses to close on Friday as the hurricane neared, bringing a storm surge of as much as 12 feet (3.7 meters) above normal tide levels. But hurricane warnings were later canceled as Maria passed. 
 
 Storm swells driven by Maria were expected to reach the southeastern coast of the U.S mainland on Friday, the NHC said, adding that it was too soon to determine what, if any, other direct effects it would have. 
 
 In the Dominican Republic, Maria damaged nearly 3,000 homes and sent more than 9,300 to shelters, local emergency response agencies reported. 
 
 Maria passed close by the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, home to about 55,000 people, early Wednesday, knocking out electricity and most mobile phone service. 
 
 Maria hit about two weeks after Hurricane Irma pounded two other U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas and St. John. The islands’ governor, Kenneth Mapp, said it was possible that St. Thomas and St. Croix might reopen to some cruise liner traffic in a month. 
 
 Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean and the United States. It followed Harvey, which also killed more than 80 people when it struck Texas in late August and caused flooding in Houston. 
 
 More than two months remain in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, although the busiest period is generally from mid-August to mid-October. ||||| Read the latest on Hurricane Maria with Friday’s live updates. 
 
 Puerto Rico remained in the throes of chaos and devastation Thursday as the remnants of Hurricane Maria continued to dump rain on the island — up to three feet in some areas. 
 
 Flash flood warnings persisted, according to the National Hurricane Center, with “catastrophic” flooding “especially in areas of mountainous terrain.” 
 
 The strikingly powerful storm had rendered an estimated 3.4 million people without power, and with the territory’s energy grid all but destroyed, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló predicted a long period of recovery. Anxious relatives in the mainland United States and elsewhere took to social media in an effort to find news of their loved ones. 
 
 Late Thursday, the mayor of Toa Baja, a town in northern Puerto Rico, told The New York Times that eight people had drowned there after flooding. That brought to at least 10 the number who have died in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, a toll that is expected to climb. 
 
 Puerto Rico faces numerous obstacles as it begins to emerge from the storm: the weight of an extended debt and bankruptcy crisis; a recovery process begun after Irma, which killed at least three people and left nearly 70 percent of households without power; the difficulty of getting to an island far from the mainland; and the strain on relief efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other groups already spread thin in the wake of several recent storms. 
 
 “Irma gave us a break, but Maria destroyed us,” said Edwin Serrano, a construction worker in Old San Juan. 
 
 The storm churned off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic as a Category 3 hurricane on Thursday, and the National Hurricane Center repeated hurricane warnings for late Thursday and early Friday morning for the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. ||||| SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria delivered a destructive full-body blow to this U.S. territory on Wednesday, ripping off metal roofs, generating terrifying and potentially lethal flash floods, knocking out 100 percent of the island’s electrical grid and decimating some communities. 
 
 With sustained winds of 155 mph at landfall — a strong Category 4 storm and nearly a Category 5 — Maria was so powerful that it disabled radar, weather stations and cell towers across Puerto Rico, leaving an information vacuum in which officials could only speculate about property damage, injuries or deaths. 
 
 “Definitely Puerto Rico — when we can get outside — we will find our island destroyed,” Abner Gómez, director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency, said in a midday news conference here. “The information we have received is not encouraging. It’s a system that has destroyed everything it has had in its path.” 
 
 The entire island experienced hurricane conditions, with 20 inches or more of rain falling, often at torrential rates of up to seven inches per hour, leadi 
 
 ng to reports of raging floodwaters and people seeking help to escape them. 
 
 The storm, having passed through the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier, made landfall on the Puerto Rican coast near Yabucoa at 6:15 a.m. It was the first Category 4 storm to strike the island directly since 1932. By midmorning, Maria had fully engulfed the 100-mile-long island. 
 
 [ Capital Weather Gang: Tracking Maria ] 
 
 Winds snapped palm trees, shredded homes and sent debris skidding across beaches and roads. Recreational boats sank in San Juan’s marinas. Across the island, residents reported trees downed and blocking roadways. Far inland, floodwaters inundated homes that had never before flooded. 
 
 In San Juan, the capital, Maria shook buildings and blew out windows. Residents of high-rise apartments sought refuge in bathrooms. 
 
 First responders, including a fire-rescue team deployed from Fairfax, Va., had to ride out the storm for hours before emerging to help people. In the meantime, calls to emergency services went in vain. A family in the southern coastal town of Guayama, for example, reportedly pleaded for help as they were trapped in their home with rising water. In Hato Rey, a San Juan business district, a woman sought assistance as she was experiencing labor pains. “Unfortunately, our staff cannot leave,” Gómez said at the news conference. “They will be rescued later.” 
 
 Macarena Gil Gandia, a resident of Hato Rey, helped her mother clean out water that had started flooding the kitchen of her second-floor apartment at dawn. 
 
 “There are sounds coming from all sides,” Gil Gandia said in a text message. “The building is moving! And we’re only on the second floor, imagine the rest!” 
 
 Farther west, in the community of Juana Matos, in the city of Catano, 80 percent of the structures were destroyed, the mayor of Catano told El Nuevo Día. 
 
 “The area is completely flooded. Water got into the houses. The houses have no roof,” the mayor said. “Most of them are made of wood and zinc, and electric poles fell on them.” 
 
 William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told The Washington Post that rescue and recovery operations are poised to help the U.S. territories — and had significant resources already deployed in the area as a result of Hurricane Irma, which hit the region just days ago. 
 
 “Right now we’re in wait-and-see mode,” Long said Wednesday afternoon. “We know that St. Croix took a tremendous hit, and we know obviously Puerto Rico took the brunt of the storm. Once the weather clears and the seas die down, we’ll be in full operation.” 
 
 Satellite images showed that Maria became disorganized, without a defined eye, and weakened as it moved slowly across the high terrain of Puerto Rico. Late Wednesday afternoon, the center of the vast storm exited the north coast of the island, its peak winds having dropped to 110 mph as a dangerous but less powerful Category 2 storm. 
 
 As Maria journeys across open Atlantic waters, it is expected to reorganize and gain strength. It is moving parallel to the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic, heading toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas. 
 
 
 
 Fishing boats with severe damage at Club Nautico in the San Juan Bay. (Photo by Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The Washington Post) 
 
 The storm track and atmospheric conditions suggest it will stay offshore of the U.S. East Coast and eventually curve northeast and out to sea. But forecasters warn that it is too soon to say with certainty that the U.S. mainland is in the clear. 
 
 Southern New England already is dealing with pounding surf and powerful wind gusts from Hurricane Jose. That storm could help in keeping Maria away from the coast by drawing it to the northeast. If Jose weakens too quickly, Maria could drift closer to the East Coast by the middle of next week. 
 
 Maria was the most violent tropical cyclone to hit Puerto Rico in more than 80 years. It had raked St. Croix hours earlier, just two weeks after that island was the only major land mass in the U.S. Virgin Islands that was spared Hurricane Irma’s wrath. Maria also produced flooding in St. Thomas, an island that Irma hit. 
 
 In the French island of Guadeloupe, officials blamed at least two deaths on Maria, and at least two people were missing after a ship went down near the tiny French island of Desirade. At least seven deaths have been reported on the devastated island of Dominica. 
 
 Del. Stacey Plaskett, who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands in Washington, said St. Croix had been a staging ground for relief efforts after Hurricane Irma devastated other parts of her district before Maria’s eye skimmed the edge of St. Croix on Tuesday night as a Category 5 storm with winds of 175 mph. 
 
 The damage has yet to be fully assessed, but in a sign of the possible devastation, Plaskett said the roof of the local racetrack blew into the runway of the airport, complicating relief efforts. 
 
 Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló on Wednesday afternoon imposed a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the general public, which will continue until Saturday. 
 
 “Resist, Puerto Rico,” the governor tweeted earlier as the storm blew in. “God is with us; we are stronger than any hurricane. Together we will lift up.” 
 
 Speaking on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday, Rosselló said, “This is clearly going to be the most devastating storm in the history of our island.” 
 
 Buildings that meet the island’s newer construction codes, established around 2011, should have been able to weather the winds, Rosselló said. But wooden homes in flood-prone areas “have no chance,” he predicted. 
 
 The last hurricane to make landfall in Puerto Rico was Georges in 1998. Just one Category 5 hurricane has hit Puerto Rico in recorded history, in 1928. 
 
 
 
 Broken windows at an apartment in the Ciudadela complex of Santurce. (Photo by Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The Washington Post) 
 
 Puerto Rico’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones has been driven home in the past two weeks as first Irma and then Maria have howled into the Caribbean. The back-to-back nature of the storms has had one minor upside: Some 3,200 federal government staffers, National Guardsmen and other emergency personnel overseen already were in Puerto Rico when Maria approached. 
 
 President Trump praised FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security for “lifesaving and life-sustaining” work in the islands, and he sent his thoughts and prayers to “all those in harm’s way,” according to a White House statement. Late Wednesday, Trump issued a message on Twitter naming the Puerto Rican governor, adding: “We are with you and the people of Puerto Rico. Stay safe! #PRStrong.” 
 
 The federal recovery effort, FEMA administrator Long said, will attempt to restore power to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as quickly as possible but in a way that makes the grid less vulnerable to similar disruptions. The power grid, he said, “is a fragile system in both territories. It’s going to be a long and frustrating process to get the power grid up.” 
 
 In the lobby of Ciqala Luxury Home Suites in Miramar, a neighborhood in San Juan, Maria Gil de Lamadrid waited with her husband as the rain and wind pounded the hotel’s facade. The door of the hotel’s parking garage flopped violently in the wind. 
 
 
 
 Hurricane Maria passed through Puerto Rico leaving behind a path of destruction. (Photo by Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The Washington Post) 
 
 Gil de Lamadrid had spent the night in the hotel after evacuating her nearby 16th floor waterfront apartment. But even in a luxury hotel room, Gil de Lamadrid could not evade flooding. On Wednesday morning, water began seeping into her room through the balcony doors. 
 
 “I’m feeling anxious,” she said. 
 
 Her husband shrugged. 
 
 “For me, it’s an adventure,” he said. “Something to talk about later.” 
 
 By midafternoon, the gusts had become less frequent, and lashing rains had eased. Soon residents emerged to survey the damage from a storm for the ages. Some walked their dogs. 
 
 “The hotels, they lost all the windows, they had structural damage even on concrete,” reported Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo, a freelance photographer working for The Washington Post, as he surveyed the tourist area of San Juan. “Trees are without a single leaf.” 
 
 In Miramar, residents began clearing the roads of larger trees. One man walked down the street wearing only a T-shirt, shorts and a fedora hat, beaming despite the rain. “I was bored,” he said. 
 
 The Nieves Acarón family decided to walk their dogs just before nightfall. 
 
 “He couldn’t last any longer,” Adriana Acarón said, pointing at her dog, Toffee. 
 
 She had been anxious throughout the storm. With cellphone reception down, she had not yet heard from her mother-in-law, who is 83 and lives in an area where a river reportedly overflowed its banks. 
 
 “It didn’t stop for hours,” she said of the storm. “I could feel everything. You could feel things flying at your window shutters.” 
 
 
 
 Residents of San Juan take refuge at Roberto Clemente Coliseum, the biggest shelter in the island. (Photo by Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The Washington Post) 
 
 In the San Juan district of Santurce, residents used machetes to cut branches from trees blocking the road. The sidewalks were rendered impassable by downed trees, metal roofing and power lines. 
 
 Anton Rosarios, 81, looked over what remained of the front of his wooden house, the walls of which had collapsed, exposing the interior. He said he was hoping that FEMA would show up: “They are the only ones who can help fix this neighborhood. God willing, they will be coming to help us soon.” 
 
 The home of his neighbor, Vitin Rodriguez, 55, had lost its roof, and all of his belongings had been ruined by Maria. A tree had fallen and crushed his car, and he said he had no way to check on the status of family members. 
 
 Further down the block, a small crowd gathered at an emergency shelter, as residents checked on friends and neighbors, some of whom had ridden out the storm playing dominoes. 
 
 “It’s important to help, to give a life to people who don’t have homes because of the storm,” said Eudalia Sanata, 46, one of the four employees of the shelter. “Look, there are even a few dogs here. Dogs are part of the family, too, and no one wants to leave their family out in the rain.” 
 
 1 of 88 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Hurricane Maria devastates Puerto Rico View Photos The storm has left widespread destruction along its path, including some areas battered earlier by the huge Hurricane Irma. Caption The storm has left widespread destruction along its path, including some areas battered earlier by the huge Hurricane Irma. DENNIS M. RIVERA PICHARDO Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Achenbach and Somashekhar reported from Washington. Daniel Cassady in San Juan; Amy Gordon in Vieques, Puerto Rico and Brian Murphy, Jason Samenow and Angela Fritz in Washington contributed to this report.
– "Once we're able to go outside, we're going to find our island destroyed," Puerto Rico Emergency Management Director Abner Gomez Cortes warned after Hurricane Maria lashed the island Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes and turning roadways into rivers. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for the entire territory, where authorities say the storm, the strongest to hit the island, knocked out electricity for 100% of customers, NBC News reports. The latest: Gov. Ricardo Rossello, calling the storm a major disaster, imposed a 6am to 6pm curfew on the island, citing the danger of floods. The storm is expected to dump 20 to 30 inches of rain on the island Friday. The storm moved toward the east coast of the Dominican Republic early Thursday and is expected to hit the Turks and Caicos islands later in the day, reports Reuters. After weakening to a Category 2 as it passed over land, it is now a Category 3 storm again, with maximum winds of 115mph. Communications have been cut with dozens of municipalities in Puerto Rico, meaning the true scale of the devastation is still unknown, especially in the southeast of the island, where the storm hit first, the AP reports. So far, the only death reported has been that of a man hit by flying lumber. FEMA administrator William Long tells the Washington Post that the government is preparing to help Puerto Rico and St. Croix, the US Virgin Island hardest hit by Maria. "Right now we're in wait-and-see mode," he says. "We know that St. Croix took a tremendous hit, and we know obviously Puerto Rico took the brunt of the storm. Once the weather clears and the seas die down, we'll be in full operation." The mayor of Catano in northern Puerto Rico says 80% of the homes in one neighborhood were destroyed and it will take "months and months and months and months" before they can recover from the storm, the Guardian reports. Rossello said Wednesday that many homes had "no chance," though those built after stricter building codes were introduced in 2011 could survive the winds. In Dominica, which suffered a direct hit from the storm earlier this week, authorities say conditions are dire, the New York Times reports. At least 14 people were killed and Maria destroyed many people's stockpiles of food as well as cut off power and running water. Florida is not in much danger this time around, but Maria may still pose a danger to the mainland US, CNN reports. Forecasters say the storm's current track does not have it hitting the East Coast, but it is too early to rule it out. The storm will definitely cause high surf and dangerous rip currents along much of the coast.