Puerto Rico in darkness
P.R. powerless, wracked by ’cane’s fury
PUERTO RICO was plunged into total darkness on Wednesday as Hurricane Maria ravaged the island with violent winds and driving rains that annihilated homes, wiped out the island’s power grid and left at least one person dead.
Maria began pummeling the U.S. territory around daybreak as a Category 4 storm, making landfall near the southeastern coastal town of Yabucoa.
Powerful 155 mph winds ripped trees from the ground, peeled roofs from houses and apartment buildings and toppled power lines as streets filled with mud and debris.
Storm surges and rain filled homes near the capital of San Juan with more than 4 feet of water before Maria made its way northwest, taking aim at the Dominican Republic.
Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents were left without electricity and access to spotty cell phone service as they sought refuge inside homes, hotels and shelters.
“Once we’re able to go outside, we’re going to find our island destroyed,” warned Abner Gomez, Puerto Rico’s emergency management director. “The information we have received is not encouraging. It’s a system that has destroyed everything in its path.”
Residents described entire neighborhoods transformed into war zones, trees bereft of leaves and homes left uninhabitable.
Video clips posted on social media showed streets filled with debris and raging rivers of muddied waters washing over cars. Astriv Velez, who told CNN she rode out the storm inside a walk-in closet, said water was seeping through the walls of her home in Trujillo Alto, just outside San Juan.
“The wind and rain has not stopped,” Velez told the network. “There are no trees, there is no green — only brown.”
Velez added that she is worried about a dam near her home.
“It will be very catastrophic if that dam breaks,” she said.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello said the only fatality reported was a man who was struck by a piece of wood caught in the high winds.
Rossello announced a curfew from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. each night until Saturday, hoping to keep people out of harm’s way.
“We find ourselves in a critical phase to help the thousands of Puerto Ricans who urgently need help and to determine the serious damages caused by Hurricane Maria,” Rossello said in a statement.
An additional 2 feet of rain could soak the island before the storm moves on, and hurricaneforce winds will continue whipping for another 24 hours, officials warned.
Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, broke down in tears as she spoke to reporters at a temporary shelter inside Roberto Clemente Coliseum.
“Many parts of San Juan are completely flooded,” Yulin Cruz said. “Our life as we know it has changed. There is a lot of pain and a lot of devastation.”
About 600 people packed into the arena, where there was no hot water or electricity.
Power could be out for parts of the island for months, Yulin Cruz warned.
The violent onslaught of the
storm threatened to destabilize an already-shaky economy as Puerto Rico struggles to restructure a portion of its $73 billion debt.
Maria is the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico in more than eight decades.
The last time a Category 4 hurricane made landfall was in 1932.
Rossello urged residents to remain hopeful in the face of the ongoing tragedy.
“We are stronger than any hurricane,” he said. “Together, we will rebuild.”
He asked President Trump to declare the island a disaster zone, a step that would open the way to federal aid.
“We are with you and the people of Puerto Rico. Stay safe! #PRStrong,” Trump tweeted late Wednesday.
Maria tore a frightening path across the Caribbean before striking Puerto Rico, killing at least nine people as it raked Dominica, Guadeloupe and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hartley Henry, an adviser to Dominica’s prime minister, said several people were killed on the island and the death toll “will rise.”
Dominica suffered a “tremendous loss of housing and public buildings,” he said.
“The country is in a daze. No electricity, no running water,” Henry said. “In summary, the island has been devastated.”
Many of the islands struck by Maria lucked out two weeks earlier as Irma ripped across the region before belting southern Florida.
Officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands asked that tourists postpone trips while they assess the effects of Maria on St. Croix and recover from the damage to St. Thomas and St. John from Irma.
Maria is expected to slog along a northwesterly track, possibly regaining some of its strength as it approaches the Dominican Republic overnight.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm had weakened to a Category 2 storm with maximum winds of 110 mph.
“Some strengthening is forecast during the next day or two, and Maria could regain major hurricane status by Thursday,” the NHC said in an advisory.
Forecasters believe the storm will take aim at the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas over the next 48 hours before tracking north in the Atlantic.