Workers remove fallen tree branches from a road in the Guadeloupe island which was hit by Hurricane Maria, September 19, 2017/REUTERS 

Hurricane Maria has made landfall near Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Wednesday.

The hurricane is about 35 miles (55 km) southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour (250 km per hour), the NHC said, adding that it is moving in a north-westerly direction at 10 mph (17 km/h).

Hurricane Maria, the second maximum-strength storm to hit the Caribbean this month, killed at least one person in Guadeloupe after devastating the tiny island nation of Dominica.

Maria, a rare Category 5 storm at the top end of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, churned in the eastern Caribbean about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, US forecasters said.

Hurricane Maria bears down on St. Croix, Puerto Rico after trashing Dominica

Some roofs had been ripped off, roads were blocked by fallen trees

The storm plowed into Dominica, a mountainous country of 72,000 people, late on Monday causing what Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit called ?mind-boggling? destruction.

?The winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with,? Skerrit said on Facebook, noting that his own residence had been hit too. He added that his focus was now on rescuing people who might be trapped, and getting medical help for the injured.

North of Dominica, the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe appeared to have been hit hard. The Guadeloupe prefecture said one person was killed by a falling tree and at least two people were missing in a shipwreck.