From USA Today:
"Hurricane Maria grows to 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm; hurricane warnings issued for Puerto Rico"
Maria:
Warnings and watches lit up across the Caribbean on Monday as Hurricane Maria gained strength and roared toward islands already hobbled by the carnage of Hurricane Irma. Maria, which grew to a Category 4 hurricane Monday afternoon, had maximum sustained winds of of 130 mph at 5 p.m. ET.
The storm should move across the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe overnight Monday before roaring towards the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Additional rapid strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, the hurricane center said. By later Tuesday, Maria should have winds of 155 mph. A hurricane warning has been posted for the entire island of Puerto Rico. Hurricane warnings are also in effect for both the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands, along with Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Lucia. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said the government has prepared hundreds of shelters capable of housing more than 100,000 evacuees if necessary. The National Weather Service in Puerto Rico warned that "catastrophic winds" are expected from Maria beginning Tuesday afternoon. "Locations may be uninhabitable for weeks or months." In addition, "major to record rains and flooding are expected to accompany Maria," the weather service said. It is still too early to determine whether the storm will impact the U.S. East Coast — and any threat would not be until early next week — but a strike on Florida is still a possibility. "We may luck out and it turns north before reaching Florida," AccuWeather meteorologist Dave Samuhel said. "Unfortunately, it looks like blocking high pressure could force it into Florida. Definitely something we are watching." Due to the uncertain path of Hurricane Jose, it's "much too early to judge what portions of the U.S. East Coast or Canada might be threatened by Maria next week," according to Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters. But first, the U.S. Virgin Islands likely will face "at least a glancing blow if not a full-on landfall" late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Samuhel said. On St. John's, the smallest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, people lined up to flee the storm. Irma blasted across the island Sept. 7, a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 mph. Homes and businesses were blown apart and power is expected to be out for months. Haiti and the Dominican Republic could see Maria's wrath on Wednesday. A potential impact on the East Coast will depend on steering currents in the upper atmosphere over the western Atlantic and the eastern U.S. that can't be determined more than a week in advance, according to the Weather Channel.
Jose:
Meanwhile, Hurricane Jose's 75 mph sustained winds will continue to bring rip currents and rough surf to the U.S. East Coast over the next several days. Tropical-storm warnings have been posted along the southeastern New England coast, including most of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coastline. "Coastlines from North Carolina to southern New England are in for a long period of rough surf and an increasing risk of beach erosion," Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson said. "If Jose were to make landfall, it could end up producing significant surge even as a post-tropical storm." Jose will produce heavy rain as it passes near southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday and Wednesday, the hurricane center said. Total accumulations of 3 to 5 inches of rain are expected. The hurricane center said the center of Jose was forecast to pass well offshore of the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Monday, east of the Delmarva peninsula overnight and Tuesday and east of the New Jersey coast on Wednesday.
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