Maria Strengthens To Category 4 Storm; Mapp Announces Curfew Beginning 10:00 a.m. Tuesday

Governor Kenneth Mapp said during a brief press conference at Government House St. Croix today, that Hurricane Maria, as of 2:00 p.m. today, was projected to make landfall in the territory in the wee hours of Wednesday morning as a category 4 storm, and he warned residents to take the weather event seriously.

In the National Hurricane Center’s (N.H.C.) 5:00 p.m. advisory, the storm had strengthened into a category 4 hurricane packing 130 miles per hour winds with higher gusts.

In light of the powerful storm’s eventual arrival — the governor, citing the National Weather Service, expects the Maria to start affecting the territory tomorrow afternoon, with conditions deteriorating from there. Hurricane-force winds are predicted to be felt through 4:00 a.m. Wednesday, according to the governor.

Mr. Mapp announced a territory-wide curfew beginning at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, giving residents this evening and tomorrow morning to make last-minute preparations.

Mr. Mapp said on its current trajectory, the storm is expected to pass about 22 miles south of St. Croix. Maria’s hurricane-force winds extend only 15 miles out. If this projection holds steady, St. Croix could be spared some of the storm’s harshest winds, although the island is expected to be badly battered. St. Thomas and St. John are not expected to sustain hurricane-force winds, but the governor advised residents in the ravaged district to prepare for the worst nonetheless.

The storms are unpredictable, and the projections change often. Maria continues to track west-northwest at 10 miles per hour, and it’s not projected to make any turn to the south. “Remember that this is a live animal, and with Irma we expected the eye to be a bit more to the north and not have such severe sustained winds, but at the last minute it warbled to the south, and the eye wall came right across St. John, the BVI and the outskirts of St. Thomas,” Mr. Mapp said.

According to the N.H.C.’s 5:00 p.m. advisory, the eye of Hurricane Maria was located by satellite imagery and data from the French radar on Martinique near latitude 15.1 North, longitude 60.7 West. Maria is moving toward the west-northwest near 9 mph (15 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through Wednesday. On the forecast track, the center of Maria will move near Dominica and the adjacent Leeward Islands during the next few hours, over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea the remainder of tonight and Tuesday, and approach Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 130 mph (215 km/h) with higher gusts. Maria is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 24 to 36 hours, and Maria is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane during the next couple of days.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles (205 km). The estimated minimum central pressure is 950 mb (28.06 inches).