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-risk zones to be evacuated.

The order, effective from 4 pm local time, bars specific areas considered to be at risk of "flooding, submersion and landslips," according to the statement, issued by the island's prefect.

Islanders on Martinique, which is also part of France, were ordered to stay indoors under a maximum-level "violet" alert.
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Why Hurricanes Harvey and Irma won't lead to action on climate change

It’s not easy to hold the nation’s attention for long, but three solid weeks of record-smashing hurricanes directly affecting multiple states and at least 20 million people will do it.

Clustered disasters hold our attention in ways that singular events cannot – they open our minds to the possibility that these aren’t just accidents or natural phenomena to be painfully endured. As such, they can provoke debates over the larger “disaster lessons” we should be learning. And I would argue the combination of Harvey and Irma has triggered such a moment.

The damages caused by the storms will undoubtedly lead to important lessons in disaster preparation and response. For many, though, the most urgent call for learning has been to acknowledge at long last the connection between climate change and severe weather.

Will this cluster of disasters provide the lever that will move climate change in the United States from a “debate” to an action plan?

It’s easy to view disaster history in this cause-effect way – to hop in time from disaster to disaster and spot the reforms as though they naturally emerge from adversity and commitment to change. But as a historian with a focus on risk and disasters, I can say this view can be misleading.
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