Dominican Republic shuts most ports ahead of Maria, Puerto Rico loses power after hurricane’s hit

The Dominican Republic on Wednesday announced it has closed most of its ports ahead of Hurricane Maria’s expected arrival but its refinery is still functioning.

The ports of La Romana, Samana, Arroyo Barril, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo are all closed.

Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Earlier on Wednesday Puerto Rico, which closed its main port of San Juan, was hit hard by Maria which arrived as a Category 4 storm. It knocked out power to the entire population of the unincorporated US territory.

On Tuesday Maria had dealt terrible devastation to the small island of Dominica and had hit Guadeloupe hard.