Updated 6:50 p.m. EST

(Bloomberg) – For the third time this month, a hurricane is spinning toward the already battered Caribbean and gathering strength along the way.

Hurricane Maria with top winds of 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour, was 35 miles north east of Martinique and bearing down on Dominica and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean's Leeward Islands, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. advisory. It is a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale and is forecast to strengthen.

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