US National Hurricane Center has warned Hurricane Maria could bring an ‘extreme’ threat to life and property with gusts of wind that could reach 155mph

Puerto Rico is bracing itself for the “catastrophic” impact of Hurricane Maria, which has already caused severe damage to the island of Dominica as it tears through the Caribbean.

The US National Hurricane Center warned of an “extreme” threat to life and property across Puerto Rico with gusts of wind that could reach 155mph on Wednesday. The center said the winds will threaten lives, cause power outages and make many roads and bridges impassable.

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Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, who has declared a state of emergency, said the island was expecting “sustained category 4 or 5 winds” on Wednesday. Hurricane Irma, which brushed the north coast of Puerto Rico earlier this month, caused more than a million homes and businesses to lose power but the US territory has not taken a direct hit from the most severe level of hurricane in more than 80 years.

“This is an event that will be damaging to the infrastructure, that will be catastrophic,” Rosselló said. “Never before has an event like this happened. It is projected to be the worst atmospheric event in a century in Puerto Rico and if we do not take precautions we will have life loss situations that we could avoid. Our only focus right now should be to make sure we save lives.”

Hurricane Maria, which rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm into a category 5 event within a single day, is expected to bring up to 18in of rain to Puerto Rico and whip up a storm surge that could reach nine feet. Residents have been urged to flee to the 500 shelters that are set up across Puerto Rico. Donald Trump has issued an emergency declaration to provide the island with federal assistance.

In Carolina, a municipality on the island’s north-east coast, residents were rushing to stock up on supplies before the storm hit. Large queues had formed at grocery stores throughout the area as people attempted to fill their cars with fuel and stock up on food.

“There are no more generators available, and some places have run out of water and batteries,” said resident Antero Rivera, who had just returned from a local supermarket. The island has begun rationing basic supplies, including water and baby formula as well as wooden panels to protect homes.

By Tuesday afternoon the weather had already begun to deteriorate on the outer Puerto Rican islands of Culebra and Vieques, with the storm expected to hit the mainland around 8am on Wednesday morning.

The French island of Guadeloupe reported the first fatality attributed to the hurricane on Tuesday afternoon. The individual was killed by a falling tree after failing to comply with an order to stay indoors on Tuesday morning. Two others were reported missing after their boat sank off the island’s east coast.

About 40% of the island has been left without power and major flooding has been reported around the south coast.

Play Video 1:02 Hurricane Maria pummels Puerto Rico - video report

The hurricane is expected to start curving away from the Caribbean and the US on Thursday but not before thundering past several other islands that will also be battered by strong winds and potential flooding. The National Hurricane Center has issued hurricane warnings for Guadeloupe, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

St Kitts and Nevis, celebrating its 34th independence day on Tuesday, closed all schools and government buildings before the expected impact in the afternoon.

“I’ve already heard reports of the winds picking up, but we’ve lost contact at the moment,” Kevin Isaac, St Kitts and Nevis’s high commissioner to the UK, told the Guardian. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

Isaac said St Kitts and Nevis is suffering from more frequent severe hurricanes, prompting a debate over the impact of climate change. Climate scientists have warned that warming temperatures may increase the ferocity of hurricanes in the future.

“There is a natural inclination to ask ‘What is going on?’” Isaac said. “Our fishing stock is migrating south because the water is getting warmer. And the scientists tell us that hurricanes pick up strength in warm waters.”

Hurricane Maria is forecast to dump 20in of rain in some areas of the US and British Virgin Islands, as well as trigger a hefty storm surge.

Benito Wheatley, a British Virgin Islands representative to the UK and the European Union, said that the islands were particularly vulnerable because of the impact of Hurricane Irma.

“As you can imagine, people are very concerned because the shelters that they have, many of them have been weakened, many of the homes don’t have roofs,” he told the Guardian.

Wheatley said Irma had torn through trees and vegetation leaving little to bind the soils together, raising fears that Maria could cause mudslides.

“Even if it’s not a direct hit, you can imagine that just a storm of that size coming anywhere near the BVI in its current condition could be very damaging,” he said.

The British government has advised against all travel to the British Virgin Islands and said it will extend the deployment of more than 1,300 military personnel already in the region to help with the Irma recovery effort.

Dominica has borne the brunt of the hurricane so far. The prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, used Facebook to describe his own harrowing experience in real time, posting updates to say that his roof was gone, that his home was flooded and that he was “at the complete mercy of the hurricane”. He added that most people he had spoken to had a similar experience.

Only once before in recorded history have two category 5 hurricanes made landfall in the Atlantic in the same hurricane season. Hurricane conditions have been aided by warmer than normal sea water and a lack of wind shear or dust blowing off the Sahara desert – conditions that can disrupt the formation of hurricanes.