WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Maria intensified into a Category 5 hurricane on Monday as its eye is approaching Dominica in eastern Caribbean, the U.S. Hurricane Center said in a statement on Monday evening.
The center of Maria was about 25 km east-southeast of Dominica and 70 km of Martinique in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
The storm was moving west-northwest at a speed of 15 km per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 260 km per hour and stronger gusts, according to the agency.
Maria is now a Category 5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale and is also the fourth major Atlantic hurricane of this year.
Hurricane and tropical storm warnings and watches were in effect for a group of islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
On the forecast track, the core of Maria will move near Dominica and the adjacent Leeward Islands during the next few hours, the hurricane center said.
The storm will churn through over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea late Monday and Tuesday before approaching Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Tuesday night and Wednesday, the agency predicted.
A dangerous storm surge accompanied by large and destructive waves, according to the advisory, will raise water levels by as much as 1.5 to 2.1 meters above normal tie levels in the hurricane warning area.
Maria is taking aim at the vulnerable islands region that is still coping with the devastation caused earlier this month by Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, which has killed up to 81 people in the Caribbean and southern United States.
