Hurricane Irma: Powerful storm blamed for three deaths

Officials say three people killed, two seriously hurt in Caribbean islands
As storm moved away from Puerto Rico, it kept dumping rain

(CNN)Hurricane Irma -- one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic -- hammered Puerto Rico on Wednesday night after smashing a string of small northern Caribbean islands where at least three people were killed.
CNN's Leyla Santiago, in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, said there were 900,000 customers without power as strong winds lashed the island. Officials told her there were several rescues because of flooding but there were no immediate reports of injuries in the US territory of about 3.4 million people.

Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told CNN he thinks the island was being hit hard even though the eye of the storm stayed off shore.
"From the center of operations that we have over here in San Juan, there is pretty significant damage already done," he said, citing wind gusts of more than 100 mph.
The outer bands of the storm continued to whip heavy rain upon the island late Wednesday.