Officials begged Puerto Ricans in the path of Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm heading toward the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, to get out as fast as possible. “You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you’re going to die,” said Puerto Rico’s public safety commissioner. “I don’t know how to make this any clearer.” As of about 5 a.m. Tuesday, Maria was moving at 9 mph with sustained winds of 160 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Officials have called the storm, which had developed a “dreaded pinhole eye,” “potentially catastrophic.”
