In Puerto Rico, the entire island was devastated by Maria’s 155 mph winds and heavy rains. A damage assessment in Dominica shortly after Maria struck revealed that 85 percent of the island’s houses were damaged and over 25 percent were destroyed completely. The official death toll from Maria in Dominica is 65, but the actual toll could be much higher as a result of respiratory and other health issues that disproportionately affected people with a pre-existing medical condition. Communications to the island nation were cut off shortly after Maria’s landfall, but not before officials had communicated that 70 percent of homes had lost their roofs. Maria’s first landfall in Dominica was preceded by landslides caused by heavy rains that raised water levels across the island. A Harvard study released in May 2018 put the death toll at 4,645, more than 70 times the official government count of 64. Experts estimate the storm could have contributed to as many as 1,000 deaths in Puerto Rico, according to a December report in The New York Times. Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico since 1928. 20, 2019, it marked the first time in recorded history that three hurricanes of that strength made landfall in the U.S. When Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. Maria weakened after making landfall, but quickly reformed to a Category 4 hurricane over the Caribbean Sea. The tiny island of Dominica (population 71,000) was the site of Maria’s first landfall, marking the first time that nation had been hit by a Category 5 hurricane. Like Hurricane Irma before it, Maria tracked along the north side of the Caribbean islands, making landfall in Dominica and Puerto Rico, while bringing damaging winds and rains to other Caribbean islands already devastated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Hurricane Maria was the fourth major hurricane to strike the islands of the Caribbean Sea in 2017.
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