颶風瑪利亞襲擊波多黎各，造成停電和洪災

Hurricane Maria dropped more heavy rain Thursday on Puerto Rico after knocking out power across the entire island, flooding many areas and killing at least one person.

The storm was the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. territory in almost 90 years.

"When we are able to go outside, we are going to find our island destroyed," said Abner Gomez, who heads Puerto Rico's emergency management agency.

More than 11,000 people took cover in the hundreds of shelters set up across Puerto Rico, while others rode out the storm in their homes. Hurricane Maria has dropped 50 centimeters of rain in some places, while its strong winds took down power lines and cell phone towers and blew off roofs.

The National Weather Service office in San Juan said "catastrophic flooding" continued Thursday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expected the water levels and high winds to subside during the day as the storm moves away.

The center of Maria will pass offshore north of the Dominican Republic Thursday and approach the Turks and Caicos Islands by early Friday. The latest advisories said the storm packed maximum sustained winds of about 175 kilometers per hour, and forecasters said Maria will strengthen some.

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily until Saturday to allow rescue crews and officials to respond to the hurricane's aftermath.受颶風瑪利亞影響，波多黎各星期四持續暴雨天氣。此前，瑪利亞的來襲造成波多黎各全島停電，很多地方出現洪災，並造成一人喪生。

這是波多黎各近90年來遭遇的最猛烈的一次颶風。

波多黎各緊急事務管理局負責人戈麥斯說：“等我們可以出門的時候會發現，這個島已經被摧毀”。

波多黎各各地開設的幾百個避難所裏收留了1萬1千多人，其餘的人則是待在家裏，等待颶風的離去。颶風瑪利亞給波多黎各部分地區帶來了50釐米的降雨，狂風颳斷了電線和手機信號發射塔，掀翻了房頂。

波多黎各首都聖胡安的國家氣象局說，“災難性的洪水”星期四還將繼續。美國國家颶風中心預計，隨着風暴的離去，水勢和風力也會隨之消退。

瑪利亞的颶風中心星期四將掃過多米尼加共和國以北海域，星期五早上向特克斯和凱科斯羣島靠攏。最新通告說，目前的最高持續風速爲每小時175公里，氣象預報說，瑪利亞風力還會加強。

波多黎各總督羅賽羅宣佈早六點至晚六點宵禁，星期六結束，爲救援人員和有關官員救災提供方便。