Broken dam, blackout stir fear in Puerto Rico

A failing dam prompted emergency evacuations of two towns in northwestern Puerto Rico on Friday as the U.S. territory struggled with flooding, an islandwide blackout and other dangers in Hurricane Maria’s wake.

The National Weather Service in San Juan said the municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas, home to some 70,000 people, were being evacuated with buses because of a crack in the Guajataca Dam.

The 345-yard (316-metre) dam holds back a manmade lake covering about two square miles (five square kilometres) and was built decades ago.

The operators of the dam reported the failure was causing flash-flooding downstream, the weather service said.

The government called the situation “extremely dangerous.”

Communications to outlying areas of the island have been hampered by the storm.

“It’s a structural failure. I don’t have any more details,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello said from the capital, San Juan. “We’re trying to evacuate as many people as possible”

Meanwhile, all across the battered island, anxious residents feared power could be out for weeks — or even months — and wondered how they would cope.

Some of the island’s 3.4 million people planned to head to the U.S. to temporarily escape the desolation. At least in the short term, though, the soggy misery will continue: Additional rain — up to six inches (15 centimetres) — is expected through today.