At 5am EDT, the NOAA located the storm’s center just 35 miles from Grand Turk Island, which is the capital island of the Turks and Caicos.
The latest update from the NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the eye of Hurricane Maria is "now near the Turks and Caicos".
The latest update said: “On the forecast track, Maria's eye will move near or just east of the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas today.”
The destructive storm knocked out Puerto Rico's entire power grid and many of the island's 3.3 million inhabitants could be without power for months,
Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rosselló described Maria as "the biggest and potentially most catastrophic hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in a century”.
The catgory 3 hurricane, with 125 mph winds, is moving toward the northwest at 7 mph and is forecast to turn north-northwest later.
Maria made landfall on Puetro Rico on Wednesday, bringing life-threatening flooding and mudslides, as well as a six to nine foot storm surge.
At least one person died when a board that was nailed to a house flew off in the storm. The full extent of the damage will not be known until authorities can do a flyover.
As well as bringing down power lines and ripping roofs off buildings, Maria also took weather radars offline.
At the time of landfall, Tom Terry, chief meteorologist at WFTV/WRDQ, tweeted: "May have lost communication with radar as Maria makes landfall. Incredible storm".
Ahead of the storm, Mr Rossello had warned: "We have not experienced an event of this magnitude in our modern history
"Although it looks like a direct hit with major damage to Puerto Rico is inevitable, I ask for America's prayers," he said, adding the government has set up 500 shelters.
Puerto Rico recently avoided a direct hit from Irma, but the storm knocked out power for 70 percent of the island, and killed at least three people.
"This is going to be catastrophic for our island," said Grisele Cruz, who was staying at a shelter in the southeastern city of Guayama. "We're going to be without services for a long time."
Hurricane Maria made its first landfall on Dominica on Monday night with devastating consequences.
Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said: "The winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with.
"The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and this apparently triggered an avalanche of torn-away roofs in the city and the countryside."
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