Maria targets Virgin Islands

POINTE-A-PITRE: Hurricane Maria headed towards the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Tuesday after battering the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, with the US National Hurricane Centre warning of a "potentially catastrophic" impact.

"Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous Category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches" the British and US territories late Tuesday, the NHC said.

Maria was at a maximum Category 5 when it hit Dominica with winds of up to 257-km per hour.

"We have lost all what money can buy and replace," Dominica’s premier Roosevelt Skerrit posted on Facebook, saying there were initial reports of "widespread devastation".

"My greatest fear for the morning is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury and possible deaths as a result of likely landslides triggered by persistent rains."

Earlier, he said his roof had been blown off and house flooded, leaving him "at the complete mercy of the hurricane".

The airport and ports have been closed on the tropical island of 72,000 people. The British Virgin Islands, still mopping up after Hurricane Irma earlier this month, have been under curfew since Monday, with residents ordered to stay indoors.

"Our islands are extremely vulnerable right now," the territory’s premier Orlando Smith said in a statement, warning that the storm could turn debris left by Irma into dangerous projectiles.

The French territory of Guadeloupe -- the bridgehead for aid for Irma-hit French territories -- was in the eye of the storm on Tuesday. Heavy rain lashed the island and several areas were without power.

"Everything around me is shaking," former French minister Victorin Lurel told BFMTV from his home in the south of the island of 400,000 people.

"Weather conditions remain very bad, with rain and ocean swells increasing the risk of flooding and landslides," the local government said. "Winds are still very violent." Many trees have fallen across roads and around 80,000 homes are without power, it said in a statement.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said 110 more soldiers would be deployed to the region to reinforce a 3,000-strong team already on hand to shore up security, rebuild infrastructure and distribute aid after Irma.

The Dominican Republic, whose east coast was battered by Irma, ordered citizens in part of the north to evacuate ahead of Maria’s arrival. St Kitts and Nevis, the British island of Montserrat, Culebra and Vieques are also on alert. Criticised for the pace of relief efforts in their overseas territories devastated by Irma, Britain, France and the Netherlands said they were boosting resources for the Caribbean.