Storm-devastated Puerto Rico braces for another deluge

YABUCOA, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands braced for heavy rains and strong winds Monday as remnants of the new season’s first hurricane provided an initial test of how far they’ve recovered from last year’s devastating storms.

Tropical Storm Beryl disintegrated after rushing over Dominica and into the eastern Caribbean, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the remnants still could bring 2 to 3 inches of rain pounding down on homes in Puerto Rico still damaged by September’s Hurricane Maria.

This could unleash flooding and landslides in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, forecasters said.

Officials said 24,000 customers had already lost power across Puerto Rico, and Gov. Ricardo Rossello urged people without sturdy roofs to move in with relatives or go to one of 14 government shelters that have opened.

Some 60,000 people in the U.S. territory still have only tarps for roofs blown off by Maria, and more than 1,500 customers are still without power more than nine months after the storm.

The Category 5 hurricane caused more than an estimated $100 billion in damage, killed dozens of people by the most conservative estimates and destroyed up to 75 percent of Puerto Rico’s electricity transmission lines.

The National Weather Service issued an alert warning that heavy showers and winds of more than 50 mphwere approaching Puerto Rico’s east coast Monday morning. The storm’s center was expected to pass just south of the island.

The U.S. Virgin Islands, meanwhile, announced that schools and government offices in St. Croix would be closed.

Beryl, which had been the Atlantic season’s first hurricane, was losing tropical storm status late Sunday when it crossed Dominica, another island that had been battered by Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 5 storm and killed dozens of people.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris was squatting on Monday about 215 miles off the coast of the Carolinas. Forecasters expect it will gain hurricane strength before moving up Gulf Stream waters on a path that could cause life-threatening surf on East Coast beaches this week.