DBS radio in Dominica is down, according to Observer Radio Antigua.
The prime minister of Dominica sends this SOS message on Facebook: My roof is gone! I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane! House is flooding – and a little later he posted: “I have been rescued.”
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit just lost his home, as a category 5 Hurricane Maria makes landfall on his country Dominica. US Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft reports indicate that Maria made landfall on Dominica around 915 PM ET
The strength of the Hurricane is even more powerful for Dominicana than Hurricane Irma when it hit the island or Barbuda last week and completely destroyed it, but Maria mass is a lot smaller.
About 2/5 of Dominica‘s economy is bananas. 2/5 of which is probably being scoured off the island right now, tweets say. Tourism is also an important part of the economy.
With only 73,000 inhabitants, the Caribbean island of Dominica lacks beaches but is blessed with pristine waterfalls, virgin rainforests and an unusual boiling lake situated in Morne Trois Pitons National Park, only six miles due east of the capital, Roseau.
Dominica is a mountainous island nation with natural hot springs and tropical rainforests. Morne Trois Pitons National Park is home to the volcanically heated, steam-covered Boiling Lake. The park also encompasses sulfur vents, the 65m-tall Trafalgar Falls, and narrow Titou Gorge. To the west is Dominica’s capital, Roseau, with colorful timber houses and botanic gardens.
Dominica has been a secret in tourism and loved by many visitors from North America, Europe, and South America.
Nature has not always been kind to Dominica.
On Sept. 20, 1834, a powerful hurricane slammed into the island, causing a 12-foot storm surge that devastated Roseau and left 230 people dead. On Aug. 29, 1979, Hurricane David — a Category 5 storm with 150 mph winds — destroyed or damaged 80 percent of Dominica’s homes, obliterated the banana crop and killed 56 people.
This year, disaster struck again in the form of Tropical Storm Erika, which arrived Aug. 28, dumping 10 inches of rain on the island, causing catastrophic mudslides and flattening entire villages before moving on to Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
