Maria continues to batter Puerto Rico & Dominican Republic with potential impacts to the U.S.

On Wednesday Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, weakening as it tracked overland, only to regain strength as it moved back over the Atlantic. As of Thursday morning, the hurricane was upgraded to a category 3 with sustained winds up to 115 mph. Maria continues to batter the islands of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic with heavy rainfall, strong winds, & storm surge as the eye of the storm tracks north of Punta Cana at 10 mph. Major flooding continues in these areas, with reports of rainfall totals exceeding 30″. Puerto Rico could see up to 4″ of additional rain all the way through Saturday.

Hurricane warnings are in effect for the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas as they expect dangerous hurricane conditions to arrive within the next 36 hours.

The eye of the system will track well to the east of the United State’s coastline through the weekend and into early next week. Even though the storm system won’t make landfall on the U.S., we still could see impacts. High surf and hazardous rip currents will impact the east coast as early as this weekend.

The track of Maria could shift as we head into the weekend. Stay up to date with this rapidly changing storm system with the ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team.