Hurricane Maria grows into a Category 5 storm and makes landfall in the storm-battered Caribbean

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Darkness falls on downtown San Juan which remains without power. Puerto Rico officials say it will likely be four to six months before power is fully restored across the U.S. territory of 3.5 million people. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A Royal Caribbean cruise ship is evacuating over 2,000 people from Puerto Rico, St. John, and St. Thomas. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Luis Frankie, age 66, waits to board an evacuation cruise ship in San Juan. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Cesar Ayala, second from left, and his family wait to board an evacuation cruise ship in San Juan. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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In downtown San Juan, electric lines lie in the road and poles block apartment complexes. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Police control the lines at every gas station in the San Juan metro area. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Blance Dias, age 77, opens a container of cold ravioli that she received at a FEMA food distribution. “I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten in two days,” she said. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Heydee Perez, age 29, and her son, Yeriel Calera, age 4, have not received any aid one week after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Ricl. The roof of their home is gone and they have very little to eat. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Hospital employees and nurses gather to pray for a co-worker who was critically injured in a violent attack during the chaos after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Children bath with the water from a fire hydrant in a public housing project in San Juan. Residents are still trying to get the basics of food, water, gas, and money from banks. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Two people sit in an apartment with a wall missing along the waterfront in San Juan. Nearly one week after hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, residents are still trying to get the basics of food, water, gas, and money from banks. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico causing heavy damage to many homes. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A line of people hoping to withdraw money wraps around the Banco Popular in San Juan on Monday. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Hurricane Maria flattened vegetation across the island of Puerto Rico. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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U.S. Coast Guard personnel survey the damage to an oil dock after Hurricane Maria passed through the area in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

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Vehicles drive along a flooded road after Hurricane Maria passed through the area in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

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In the mountain town of Utuado, Puerto Rico, residents are struggling to recover after Hurricane Maria. There is no running water, so people are collecting water from mountain springs. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Delia Pineda, 89, is evacuated from Salto Arriba, an area cut off from Utuado following Hurricane Maria. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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In Utuado, Puerto Rico, rushing water from Hurricane Maria tore down trees and stripped them of their branches. The main north-south road is washed out, leaving people cut off. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Highway 10, a major north-south connection through Puerto Rico, was washed out by Hurricane Maria. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A man walks on a highway divider while carrying his bicycle in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Ricardo Arduengo / AFP/Getty Images)

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Residents clear the streets after Hurricane Maria made landfall in the Guaynabo suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Alex Wroblewski / Getty Images)

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People walk across a flooded street in Juana Matos, Puerto Rico. (Hector Retamal / AFP/Getty Images)

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Damaged sailboats washed ashore are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. (Ricardo Arduengo / AFP/Getty Images)

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Downed traffic lights and power lines are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. (Douglas Curran / AFP/Getty Images)

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People are transported along a road flooded by Hurricane Maria in Juana Matos, Puerto Rico. (Hector Retamal / AFP/Getty Images)

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Old San Juan is without electricity after Maria. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Old San Juan has no electricity, including the area of La Perla. Restoring power to the island may take months. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Wide swaths of Puerto Rico remained without power. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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The day after Hurricane Maria’s direct hit, residents of La Perla, part of Old San Juan, begin cleaning up. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A damaged residence in Old San Juan’s La Perla community. Like the rest of Puerto Rico, the residents are without power or running water. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Residents of Isla Palmeras, a San Juan neighborhood, are surrounded by floodwater. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ivan Lopez, 51, helps a neighbor with his badly damaged home. “I was born here, I’ll die here,” Lopez said. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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The long cleanup process has begun in La Perla, part of Old San Juan. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Branches are strewn about Santurce, part of San Juan. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Lyan Carrillo, 12, foreground, and her family, including Nilda Ramirez, center, and Ramirez’s 1-year-old son, Crisxander Cotto, returned to their home in La Perla. They plan to stay despite the lack of electricity and water. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Residents of the San Juan district of Santurce wade through floodwater toward their home. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ivan Lopez looks at the damage to his neighbors’ homes. His home was not as badly damaged, so he plans to stay despite a lack of water and electricity. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Residents of La Perla begin to clean up. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Sonia Viruet, who lives in La Perla, takes stock after Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Neighbors come together to move a car in San Juan’s La Perla area. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Chickens run loose in the area of La Perla, where many homes were destroyed. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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People loot a furniture store in a section of Old San Juan after Maria damaged buildings. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Maria downed trees and damaged structures in Old San Juan. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Old San Juan resident Rosa Avalo, 48, saw her home, purple building, damaged by debris from her neighbor’s property. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Evacuees rest in almost complete darkness on the ground floor of the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, a major shelter in San Juan. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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David Leininger leaves his flooded car in a San Juan parking lot. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Roberto Flores, left, helps move tree limbs from a San Juan road. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A man wades through a flooded road in Fajardo on Wednesday. (Ricardo Arduengo / AFP / Getty Images)

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A view from the Sheraton Old San Juan, where people were waiting out Maria. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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At the Sheraton Old San Juan, people wait out the hurricane. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Trees topple in a parking lot at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan. (Hector Retamal / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man and his daughter flee from the rain on a San Juan beach before Hurricane Maria’s arrival. (Hector Retamal / AFP/Getty Images)

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Winds lash the coastal city of Fajardo as Hurricane Maria approaches Puerto Rico. (Ricardo Arduengo / AFP / Getty Images)

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People walk by a fallen tree off the shore of Sainte-Anne on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe after the passing of Hurricane Maria. (Dominique Chomereau-Lamotte / Associated Press)

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People walk amid debris of a restaurant shattered by Hurricane Maria in Le Carbet on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. (Lionel Chamoiseau / AFP/Getty Images)

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Rocks swept up by hurricane-generated waves cover a road along the oceanfront in Le Carbet, on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. (Lionel Chamoiseau / AFP/Getty Images)

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People clear debris in Saint-Pierre, on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, after it was hit by Hurricane Maria. (Lionel Chamoiseau / AFP/Getty Images)

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A restaurant lies in splinters in Le Carbet, on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, after it was hit by Hurricane Maria. (Lionel Chamoiseau / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man clears debris from a street in Saint-Pierre, on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, after it was hit by Hurricane Maria. (Lionel Chamoiseau / AFP/Getty Images)

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Debris in a street in Marigot, on the French Caribbean island of Saint Martin, after Hurricane Maria hit. (Helene Valenzuela / AFP/Getty Images)

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Official cars with loudspeakers roll slowly down a street in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, broadcasting a warning to residents to evacuate as Hurricane Maria approaches. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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As Hurricane Maria approached from the other direction, Old San Juan was graced by a dramatic sunset on Monday. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A historic cemetery at the water’s edge in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, faces possible flooding as Hurricane Maria passes over the island. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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In Cruz Bay on St. John in the Virgin Islands, which already took a severe lashing from Hurricane Irma, workers rush to fix a roof in advance of Hurricane Maria. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Workers at the Inaru restaurant in Old San Juan take in umbrellas and close early in anticipation of Hurricane Maria. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

By Melissa Etehad

and Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Sept. 18, 2017 8 PM PT

Reporting from San Juan, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria, a dangerous Category 5 storm, reached the island of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean on Monday night with sustained winds of 160 mph, forecasters said.

It was expected to deliver destructive waves, a storm surge of up to 9 feet, flooding and mudslides along a path that the National Hurricane Center said includes Guadeloupe, the Leeward Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The storm was moving northwest at 9 mph Monday night as it struck Dominica, a nation of roughly 74,000 people located less than 400 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. Landfall there was expected as soon as late Tuesday.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello declared a state of emergency Monday, activated the National Guard and closed all schools.

“Our call is for people to evacuate areas that are prone to floods and landslides, in addition to vulnerable structures,” he said in a statement. “We are informing citizens that it is time to seek refuge with a family member, friend, or move to a state shelter because rescuers will not go out and risk their lives once winds reach 50 miles per hour.”

Public Security Secretary Héctor Pesquera was more blunt: “Flood-prone areas must be abandoned,” he said. “If not, you will die.”

The Puerto Rico Housing Department said there are 450 emergency shelters available with space for 62,714 people.

Residents in the capital of San Juan lined up with stranded tourists and evacuees from other Caribbean islands Monday to vie for hurricane staples in short supply: cases of water, flashlights and generators.

In the historic seafront neighborhood of Old San Juan, workers boarded up windows and hotel managers tested emergency alert systems and warned guests that power and air conditioning would likely fail during the storm.

“We’re just going to stay put,” said 35-year-old Teresa Trejo, who was visiting from Napa, Calif., with a friend and had been unable to find a flight out. “We’re told the hotel is well-versed in this sort of thing. I feel confident they have these contingency plans.”

Their hotel, the Sheraton, had a backup generator and was well-stocked with food, a manager told them.

Maria would be the second major hurricane to affect Puerto Rico in two weeks. Much of the island is still without power from Hurricane Irma, which passed nearby earlier this month.

“The Government is in constant communication with the White House and federal agencies since before the passage of Hurricane Irma last week,” Carlos Mercader, the governor’s representative in Washington, said in a statement.

“We will continue to collaborate with our federal partners. We are preparing for a powerful hurricane that will put even more pressure on our infrastructure, already deeply affected by Hurricane Irma.”

On Monday, President Trump approved an emergency declaration in the U.S. Virgin Islands in order to provide federal assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

It’s been an especially dangerous hurricane season this year.

In August, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 storm, with winds reaching 110 mph. A few weeks later in September, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm, devastating Barbuda and St. Martin with winds reaching 185 mph.

Men board up buildings ahead of Hurricane Maria in Sainte-Anne on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Monday.

Etehad reported from Los Angeles and Hennessy-Fiske from San Juan.

[email protected]

Twitter: @melissaetehad

[email protected]

Twitter: @mollyhf

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UPDATES:

8 p.m.: This article was updated with more reporting from San Juan.

7:15 p.m.: This article has been updated with reporting from Puerto Rico.

6:35 p.m.: This article has been updated with the news that the storm made landfall in Dominica.

6:05 p.m.: This article was updated with news that Hurricane Maria became a Category 5 storm and was soon expected to strike Dominica.

3:05 p.m.: This article was updated with the storms’ location, comments from people in Puerto Rico and Dominica’s prime minister and information about the deadly past storm in Dominica.

12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with the latest position and strength reports for Hurricanes Maria and Jose and additional details on storm preparations.

8:25 a.m.: This article was updated with Maria’s upgrade to a Category 3 storm.

This article was originally published at 7:25 a.m.