Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and cut power to the entire island — here’s what it looks like on the ground

Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico at 6:15 a.m. on Wednesday as the third-strongest hurricane to ever hit the US.

The direct hit caused widespread destruction.

“The San Juan that we knew yesterday is no longer here,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told MSNBC on Wednesday night. The mayor said Puerto Rico, home to some 3.5 million people, is “looking at four to six months without electricity.”

Rescue attempts are ongoing and it’ll be some time before the full scope of the damage is known, but some early images have begun to emerge.

Here's what it looks like on the ground.

Hurricane Maria made landfall on the southeastern corner of Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 storm with 155-mph winds on Wednesday morning.

The storm's winds knocked down countless power lines, causing outages for 100% of the island.

Many roofs were ripped off homes, businesses, and other buildings.

The National Weather Service measured wind gusts over 200 mph before Maria made landfall. But many wind gauges broke in the strong winds, so we may never know how strong they really were on the island.

Source: NWS San Diego

Cellphone communications failed as towers went down, leaving people waiting to find out if their loved ones were safe.

Miraculously, no deaths have been reported in Puerto Rico so far, though that may change. Hurricane Maria has killed at least 17 people on its journey through the Caribbean.

Much of Puerto Rico saw feet of rain. Caguas, in the central eastern part of the island, got 37.74 inches of rain by Thursday morning. Some of the rain gauges lost transmission in the conditions.

Over a dozen rivers flooded, some to record levels. Many flood gauges also broke as rivers waters rose 20 to 30 feet in some cases.

The storm surge, a term that refers to the waves that blown onshore by a hurricane's strong winds, was expected to reach 6 to 9 feet above normal levels on the coasts.

Thousands of people fled their homes and sought refuge in shelters to wait out the storm.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello of Puerto Rico announced Wednesday afternoon that he was instituting a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Rescue workers spent Thursday navigating through floodwaters and debris to find survivors and bring them to safety.

The storm damaged some emergency vehicles, though, making rescue workers' jobs even harder.

Debris littered the roads, which will have to be cleared before emergency workers can venture further to find people.

It could be weeks or months before Puerto Ricans get electricity again. Before Maria hit, nearly 1 million people lost power when Hurricane Irma tore through the island.

Source: Business Insider

Without power, Puerto Ricans have no ability to keep things cool, run life-preserving hospital equipment, or charge phones to communicate. Because power can also keep water running, many were without water on Thursday.

The strong winds destroyed many crops, as well, including this banana plantation in Guayama on the southern coast.

At the height of the storm, Hurricane Maria engulfed the entire 3,515-square-mile island of Puerto Rico.

It will probably take months for Puerto Rico to recover — if not more. "Our town was hit but we will rise," San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz tweeted on Wednesday night. "Thank you for your solidarity."

Source: Twitter