PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Sep. 22, CMC – Three people were killed on Thursday as heavy rains stemming from the close passage of the powerful Hurricane Maria, lashed sections of Haiti.

The police report that early Thursday, a 45-year-old man drowned as he attempted to cross the Grand Ravine River and two people in the district of Cornillon were killed by lightning.

The authorities reported that just over 33 shelters were opened in the Artibonite department in the western end of the country as flooding was reported in some areas.

As a precaution, the authorities announced that schools located in departments of North, North-East and North-West would be closed on Friday.

On Friday morning Hurricane Maria was approaching the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category three storm.

The Miami based national Hurricane Centre said on the forecast track, Maria’s eye will move near or just east of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas on Friday.

The government of The Bahamas has now issued a tropical storm warning for the country, while a hurricane warning is in effect for the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the south eastern Bahamas.
A Tropical storm warning is in effect for sections of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and the central Bahamas.

The storm has already carved a destructive path across the Caribbean, killing at least 13 people in Puerto Rico, 15 in Dominica, where 20 are still missing and two on the French island of Guadeloupe.