News: Evacuate or Die

Thousands of Puerto Ricans have been told to "evacuate or die" as Category 5 Hurricane Maria bears down on the island.

After wreaking widespread devastation on Dominica and leaving the small Caribbean island virtually incommunicado, Maria is cutting a deadly path west with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands most at risk.

Next in the storm's path was St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where the storm was expected to hit late on Tuesday.
With winds of 160 mph Maria is threatening to inflict mudslides, flash floods, life-threatening winds and storm surges throughout the region.

Several airlines have offered to cap fares for people fleeing the path of the hurricane.

Winds have strengthened to 175 mph.

"You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you're going to die,"  Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico's public safety commissioner said. "I don't know how to make this any clearer."

His stark warning came as frantic preparations are being made across much of the Caribbean ahead of the arrival of the "potentially catastrophic" Category 5 hurricane.
The storm is following a similar path to Hurricane Irma  which ripped across the Caribbean earlier this month, claiming at least 84 deaths and reducing the island of Barbuda to rubble.

Maria is the fourth major hurricane - defined as Category 3 or higher - hit the region this year, making the season the worst in many years.

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the National Hurricane Centre said.

With Maria tracking northwest hurricane warnings have been issued for the US and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat.
Maria claimed its first victim in the French territory of Guadeloupe, where two other people were missing.

It was Dominica, a mountainous island nation of 72,000, which was the first to take a battering.

"We have lost all what money can buy", Rosevellt Skerrit, the Prime Minister wrote on facebook