Dominica's Prime Minister says 160mph winds and hours of rain from Hurricane Maria have caused "mind-boggling, widespread devastation" across the former British colony.

Roosevelt Skerrit declared the Caribbean island had "lost all what money can buy and replace".

In a series of frantic posts on Facebook, he detailed the decimation of his house and flooding which had "triggered an avalanche of torn away roofs".

:: LIVE - Maria continues through the Caribbean

Image: The eye of Hurricane Maria passed directly over Dominica

At 10pm local time (2am BST), Mr Skerrit said he was "at the complete mercy of the hurricane", but confirmed just under an hour later that he had been rescued.


While there were no reports of casualties overnight, the island nation's leader said his "greatest fear" was waking to news of possible deaths caused by landslides.

He urged other countries to send aid - including helicopters to survey the island from the air in a search for people trapped under rubble.

"We will need help, my friend," he wrote. "We will need help of all kinds."

Image: Mr Skerrit had to be rescued from his flooded house

After hours spent pounding Dominica, Maria was temporarily downgraded to a category four storm but returned to five - the strongest on the scale - within a couple of hours. Experts cautioned that fluctuations in intensity should be expected.

Puerto Rico and the island of Hispaniola are next in Maria's deadly path, forecasters warn.

"You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you're going to die," Puerto Rico's public safety commissioner urged on Monday.



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Image: Puerto Ricans are boarding up their homes

Up to 51cm (20 inches) of rain could also drench the US and British Virgin Islands, which are still recovering after Hurricane Irma, on Wednesday night.

Cat Clayton, who owns a hotel in Tortola, the largest island, told Sky News that it was now too late to escape - and that she was preparing to weather the storm.

"It can't get much worse that what it is," she said. "We have to pull together as a community, as a family, and just hunker down and get on with our days, get ready and prepared as we possibly can."

WATCH: 'Apocalyptic' scenes on Irma-ravaged Tortola

Around 80% of Tortola's buildings were damaged or totally destroyed by Irma's 185mph winds, which stripped trees and power lines and reduced homes to rubble.

Brigadier John Ridge, second in command of the joint task force of troops helping islanders to recover, said: "It kind of does not matter which way the hurricane goes, it is bad."

Hurricane warnings have also been issued to a host of other Caribbean islands, including St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat.

Tropical storm warnings have gone out to Martinique, Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St Eustatius, St Maarten, St Lucia and Anguilla.