Hurricane Maria left over 15 dead in Dominica

Hurricane Maria has left more than 15 people dead in hard-hit Dominica, the small Caribbean island’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced Thursday.

“So far, we would have buried in excess of 15 people,” he told a television network of Antigua and Barbuda, a neighboring country.

The island, which has some 72,000 inhabitants, was hit by the storm at the height of its Category Five power.

Dominica, which is located near the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, has been almost completely cut off from the world.

Skerrit himself had to to be rescued during the hurricane, which blew the roof off his residence.