Hurricane Maria pummels small Caribbean island of Dominica as Category 5 storm

PONCE, Puerto Rico – Hurricane Maria, the second Category 5 storm to hit the Caribbean this month, plowed into the small island nation of Dominica on Monday with roof-ripping fury on a collision course with the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico later this week.

Hurricane Maria was upgraded Monday evening to the top of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale when its maximum sustained winds reached 160 miles per hour (215 km per hour), with higher gusts, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

Less than 90 minutes later, the center of the storm, described by the NHC as "potentially catastrophic," passed almost directly over Dominica, on a track that would put it over Puerto Rico by Wednesday, according to the agency's latest bulletins.