After Irma, battered Caribbean islands brace for Category-4 Hurricane Maria
Islands in the Caribbean still reeling from megastorm Irma braced on Tuesday for a fresh battering as Hurricane Maria approached, wielding potentially lethal force.In just a few hours, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) hiked Maria from a Category Two to a Category Four hurricane, packing winds of 209 kilometres per hour that it forecast would strengthen further over the next day or so. "Potentially life-threatening" storm surges, destructive waves, flash floods and mudslides threatened the Leeward Islands -- the island group that includes Martinique, Puerto Rico and the US and British Vigin islands -- the NHC said. "The eye and the intense inner core is expected to pass near Dominica in the next few hours," the centre warned in its 2100 GMT (2:30 am IST) bulletin, describing Maria as "an extremely dangerous major hurricane". The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe -- the bridgehead for aid for Irma-hit French territories -- ordered all at-r...