Hurricane Maria; 32 feared dead

Team Udayavani, Sep 22, 2017, 3:30 PM IST

Puerto Rico (USA): Hurricane Maria, the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. territory in almost a century, destroyed buildings and knocked out power across Puerto Rico before flooding parts of the Dominican Republic and then regaining some of its strength as it approached the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas late on Thursday. 

It has been estimated that it could take half a year to restore power to the nearly 3.5 million people who live there.

Hurricane Maria is the second major hurricane to rage through the Caribbean this month, Maria has killed at least 32 people and devastated several small islands, including St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Dominica.

Mr. Skerrit, the prime minister, called the damage from the storm “unprecedented” in an interview with a television station on the nearby island of Antigua on Thursday. He gave a death toll of 15, but warned that the number might rise, with at least 20 people still missing and dozens of villages yet to be assessed.

“We have many deaths, but it is just a miracle that we do not have hundreds of deaths in the country,” Mr. Skerrit said. “Because when you look at the destruction, people were in those homes.”