ahead. it is now past dominica, as chad said. guadalupe, said everybody stay indoors. preservation of life is the important thing at the moment. john, back to you. >> michael holmes, can't believe we're looking at these pictures again of another storm battering the same basic area. state of emergency is in effect in puerto rico. the island gearing up for a direct hit by the category 5 hurricane. cnn's nick valencia live in san juan with the latest. nick? >> reporter: good morning, john. this is expected to be a monster storm. people here on the island territory of puerto rico are taking the warnings very seriously. ominous warnings from officials. we want to give you the sense of what the current conditions are here. on one of the beaches of this beautiful territory. those waters, those waves are starting to swell up. earlier this morning, those skies were relatively clear. blue skies. you see cloud formations.