At last 30 people have died from the storm, including 13 on Puerto Rico.
With a devastated Puerto Rico in its wake, Hurricane Maria was bearing down on the Turks and Caicos from the east Friday with Category-3 winds and the threat of more heavy rain and flash floods.
The powerful storm has killed at least 30 people in its march through the Caribbean, including 15 in Dominica and two in Guadeloupe.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello told The Weather Channel that at least 13 people have died on the island or in nearby waters.
The hurricane center said the eye of Maria, a Category 3 storm, was expected to move near or just east of the Turks and Caicos Island and southeastern Bahamas Friday before weakening and as it heads out into the Atlantic.
At 8 a.m. ET, the U. S. National Hurricane Center said the storm was centered about 30 miles north northeast of Grand Turk Island, packing winds of 125 mph and moving northwest at 7 mph.
A hurricane warning was in effect for portions of the Dominican Republic, as well as Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas.
Maria’s hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 70 miles from the center.
Forecasters warned of continued heavy rain in Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, and parts of the Dominican Republic and Bahamas. By the time Maria’s power is spent, the hurricane center said, it will have dumped up to 40 inches of rain on Puerto Rico, an amount approaching the heavy rainfall from Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
“Rainfall on these islands will continue to cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” the center said.
Puerto Rico, whose population of more than 3 million lost all electric power, was still just emerging Friday from the effects of Maria, which inundated towns and crushed homes.
The loss of power has left residents hunting for gas canisters for cooking, collecting rainwater or steeling themselves mentally for the hardships to come in the tropical heat. Some have contemplated leaving the island.
In Dominica, another hard-hit island, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit cried as he spoke to a reporter on the nearby island of Antigua. “We have buried in excess of 15 people,” he said. “It is a miracle there were not hundreds of deaths.”
Contributing: Associated Press
