Page 46 - Making Landfall News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Juan and it will be four months before power is restored on the entire island. >> the puerto rico and the san juan we knew yesterday is no longer there so we have to reconstruct, rebuild, reinvent it. we have to be resilient. but i -- i'm just concerned that we may not get to everybody in time. and that is a great weight on my shoulders. >> hurricane maria is now a category 2 storm and is expected to hit the eastern coast of the dominican republic tomorrow. nbc's gadi schwartz joins us by phone from san juan. what is the latest there? >> reporter: hey, lawrence, yeah. emotional day for the may...

>> hurricane maria is now a category 2 storm and is expected to hit the eastern coast of the dominican republic tomorrow. nbc's gadi schwartz joins us by phone from san juan. what is the latest there? >> reporter: hey, lawrence, yeah. emotional day for the mayor there. we left a larger shelter in san juan where she was and first time out in 24 hours. we were effectively there on logdown and while we were there, hurricane maria passed over us. it's a massive coliseum. hundreds of people there now and there are some people starting to try to head out tonight but the conditions still really dange...

Now after first making landfall. snapping trees in half. rifg trees out of the ground. at times hurricane force winds covering the entire island. east coast the cnn crew watched it rip a roof off the hotel. on u.s. virgin islands communication is sporadic and spotty. some there are relying upon facebook to ask about others who are missing. let's begin with cnn leyla sant in the capital of san juan. earlier you were being battered by high winds tough to stand. what are conditions like there now? >> reporter: you know still rain coming down, jake. so a little windy but not anything near what w...

>> that was from the monroe county sheriff who we interviewed yesterday. we went into several neighborhoods and went directly where the eye of the storm slammed into florida making landfall. it was hit or miss. every structure had damage to some extent. some of them, a lot of trailers, completely ripped apart and trashed but a lot of the damage as well north of there up the keys in big pine key, the dirty side, the rough side of the storm if you will, flattened homes, trailers, boats thrown all over the place and wreckage everywhere. mile marker 74, 74 miles from key west is where the roadbloc...

Martin and dutch and french authorities are there providing aid. also evacuations. a number of citizens from the dutch are heading back to the netherlands. the united kingdom has another naval vessel on the way to the u.s. virgin islands. the u.s. is is there. they're taking residents from st. martin to san juan. the biggest sigh of relief was in puerto rico and san juan. the eye staying off the land, lashing the island with heavy rain but no direct hit. then it made its way to turks and kay coast, a number of the islands at category 5, the strongest in history to ever affect the turks and cai...