Even after weakening to a category 4 storm shortly before making landfall along the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria caused unprecedented devastation to the cash-strapped island and knocking out electricity for all of its 3.4 million residents. Worse still, the island’s governor has said it could be months before power is restored to all customers, according to the Associated Press.
More than 30 students have been confirmed dead, and 30 more are missing, as rescuers sift through the rubble of the Enrique Rebsamen primary and secondary school, a private school that was one of 44 buildings in Mexico City that collapsed during Tuesday's historic earthquake. According to the Associated Press, a wing of the three-story school pancaked into a pile of concrete slabs during the quake, killing dozens and leaving dozens more trapped in the wreckage.
Hurricane Maria made landfall near the city of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, at around 6:15 am Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center, battering the densely populated eastern side of the island with torrential rains and 155 mph gusts as hundreds of thousands of people hunkered down in one of the island's 500 storm shelters in hopes of riding out the second major hurricane to impact the island within two weeks.
Category 4 Maria slammed the island with winds of 155 mph, just 2 mph short of category 5 status.
Across central Mexico, rescue workers including soldiers and volunteers worked late into the night Tuesday to free the living who were still trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings following Mexico's deadliest earthquake in more than 30 years.
Mexico City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa has said that 44 buildings in Mexico city have collapsed, and potentially hundreds more have been seriously damaged, by Tuesday's earthquake. The 7.1-magnitude quake shook Central Mexico. With 119 dead at last count, the quake is the deadliest to strike Mexico since the one that killed 5,000 people 32 years ago today...
Over the last few hours, stunning video footage depicting buildings collapsing and smoking billowing from the rubble have appeared on Twitter. Here's a collection of some of the most dramatic videos.