Battered islands in crosshairs as Hurricane Maria speeds up

Projected brush with offshore Hurricane Jose

Watches are also in place for locations including the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, St. Martin, Anguilla and St. Barthelemy — all of which were devastated by Hurricane Irma earlier this month. Meanwhile, the Northeast U.S. is preparing for rain, beach erosion and riptides from a projected brush with offshore Hurricane Jose.

Maria is the latest in a series of devastating storms that have battered the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the 2017 season. In the past month, hurricanes Irma and Harvey left dozens of people dead and upended energy and agriculture markets.

Maria: Cat 3 strength predicted

Maria is traveling west-northwest at 13 mph and is forecast to move across the Leeward Islands later on Monday. Projections from forecasting service AccuWeather Inc. show Maria will probably become a Category 2 hurricane before reaching the Leeward Islands, and intensify once again to Category 3 as it nears Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Wednesday. A Category 3 storm has maximum sustained winds above 110 mph.

"Significant strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours and Maria is expected to become a dangerous major hurricane before it moves through the Leeward Islands," the NHC said.

On its current track, Maria is forecast to strike Puerto Rico's southern coast Wednesday with winds as high as 150 mph and a storm surge that could reach nine feet.

Linger in Atlantic

From there, Maria is expected to move into the Bahamas by Saturday retaining much of its strength. Beyond that, its future may depend on other weather systems including Jose, which is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm and linger in the Atlantic after bringing gusty winds and rains across eastern Long Island, Rhode Island and Massachusetts late Tuesday and Wednesday.

"The really interesting thing is how zombie Jose may interact with Hurricane Maria as it moves northward this weekend and early next week," said Todd Crawford, lead meteorologist at The Weather Company in Andover, Massachusetts.

Forecasters didn't have enough data late Sunday to tell how Maria might affect the U.S. Jose, which is expected to stay off the coast of the Northeast U.S., probably will affect Maria's path, according to Weather Underground of Ann Arbor, Michigan. While some models show Maria staying well off the U.S.'s eastern coast, others show it could pose a threat in about a week, the forecasting service said.

Islands prepare

In Puerto Rico, where Irma knocked out power to more than 1 million customers, officials set up 450 shelters, closed schools Monday, and planned to send government employees home at noon in advance of Maria.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, President Danilo Medina held an emergency meeting Sunday with officials from the armed forces and Center for Emergency Operations, before traveling to New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting. Officials said they would monitor Maria's progress and meet again Monday morning.

"We are preparing for a powerful hurricane that will put even more pressure on our infrastructure already deeply affected by Hurricane Irma," Carlos Mercader, a representative of Puerto Rico's government in Washington, said in a statement.

After the storm, someone has to pay

Dominica, an island of 75,000 people in the eastern Caribbean, planned to shut schools, businesses and all government offices except emergency services Monday, said Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in a national address.

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"We should not take this storm lightly. Just because the last one skipped us, we should not believe this one will skip us," he said. "We ought to be mindful of the serious devastation caused in some of the islands" by Hurricane Irma. 

Storm surge

Skerrit ordered shelters to open and said the government would call for people in some areas to evacuate.

Storm surge is expected to be a significant hazard and could raise water levels by as much as 5 feet to 7 feet as it crosses the Leeward Islands, the hurricane center predicts. Swells, accompanied by life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, are already affecting islands across the Lesser Antilles, the hurricane center said.

Jose U.S. tropical storm watch

The latest data on Jose show its threats to the U.S. have diminished, although locations such as Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and an area from Fenwick Island, Delaware, to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, are under a tropical storm watch, the NHC said in an advisory at 5 a.m. New York time.