Nothing is weakening Category 5 Hurricane Maria as it heads directly for Puerto Rico, according to man in charge of the flight operation through the storm.
“Right now, there’s nothing to restrict the intensity of the storm. It’s over very warm water. There’s nothing shearing the storm. Unfortunately, I wish I had better news for the folks in Puerto Rico,” Richard Henning, flight director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Hunter, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday as his aircraft was flying in the upper reaches of the storm.
Maria, with maximum sustained winds of 175 miles per hour, had “leveled off in intensity,” Henning noted. But, Henning also cautioned: “Unfortunately, it’s leveled off at an extreme level of intensity.”
Earlier in the evening, Maria jumped into the list of top 10 hurricanes with the lowest minimum pressure on record in the Atlantic Ocean at 909 millibars. Henning said this is “historically low” for this portion of the Caribbean.
Cat 5 Hurricane Maria has leveled off at an “extreme level of intensity,” says NOAA Hurricane Hunter flight director https://t.co/8DmYFLAfph
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) September 20, 2017
Hurricanes are by nature rotating low-pressure systems, and the lower the pressure, the more powerful the storm.
The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are under direct threat as Maria is “still strengthening,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm is expected to make landfall over Puerto Rico as a “potentially catastrophic” Category 5 storm Wednesday morning. “Locations may be uninhabitable for weeks or months,” the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.
Puerto Rico’s government has prepared hundreds of shelters and has warned people in flood zones or in vulnerable housing to seek appropriate accommodations.
“You have to evacuate — otherwise, you are going to die,” Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s commissioner of public safety, warned on Telemundo, according to NBC News.
