It’s been less than two weeks since Hurricane Irma slammed into the Eastern Caribbean as a Category 4 storm, devastating many of the tiny islands in its path before barreling into Florida. Now some of these same islands in the Caribbean — including St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the US territory Puerto Rico — are enduring a new, stomach-churning threat: Hurricane Maria.

Maria rammed directly into Puerto Rico early Wednesday morning as a powerful Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds. It’s the strongest storm to hit the island in 80 years. Some areas in Puerto Rico are expected to see 20 inches of rain and 6 to 9 feet of dangerous storm surge (often the most deadly component of a hurricane).

Already, the destruction in the Caribbean has been immense. Maria made landfall on the island of Dominica (population 72,000) Monday as a Category 5, killing seven. “The [160 mph] winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with,” Roosevelt Skerrit, Dominica’s prime minister, wrote on Facebook. He called the damage “mind boggling.

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Brian Resnick is Science Reporter for Vox.