Flooding engulfs Puerto Rico
Officials worry death toll will rise
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Days after Hurricane Maria cratered homes and shredded power lines, officials in Puerto Rico on Friday continued rescue efforts while warning that death tolls would likely increase as flooding continues to affect large portions of the island.
The National Weather Service said the Guajataca Dam, on the western side of the island, was failing and that 70,000 people in Isabela and Quebradillas were being evacuated.
The weather service said the failure is causing flash flooding downstream on the Rio Guajataca, where several rural communities are situated.
An engineer inspecting the dam reported a “contained breach” that officials realized was a crack that could be the first sign of total failure of the dam, said Anthony Reynes, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Weather Service.
“We know of other potential fatalities through unofficial channels that we haven’t been able to confirm.” Hector Pesquera, secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety
More than 15 inches of rain fell on the mountains surrounding the Guajataca Dam in northwest Puerto Rico after Maria left the island, swelling the reservoir behind the nearly 90-year-old dam.
At least six people were killed in the U.S. territory as a result of Maria, said Hector Pesquera, secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety.
Government spokesman Carlos Bermudez said that officials had no communication with 40 of the 78 municipalities on the island more than two days after the Category 4 storm crossed the island.
Officials said 1,360 of the island’s 1,600 cellphone towers had been downed, along with 85 percent of above-ground and underground phone and internet cables. With roads blocked and phones dead, officials said the situation may be worse than they know.
In Utuado, a town about 65 miles west of San Juan, three people died in a landslide. Three more were killed as a result of floods and falling debris in the suburbs of San Juan.
“These are fatalities we know of,” Pesquera said. “We know of other potential fatalities through unofficial channels that we haven’t been able to confirm.”
For several days, Maria has pummeled the Caribbean, leaving a deadly trail and recovery efforts that will last several months.
Maria began to pass Friday northeast of the Turks and Caicos as a Category 3 storm.
A hurricane warning remained in effect for those islands as well as for the southeastern Bahamas. The storm is expected to veer into the open Atlantic Ocean and pose no threat to the U.S. mainland.
While the eye of Maria has passed Puerto Rico, heavy rains continue.
With most radio, television and cellphone towers down, communication remains difficult, if not impossible, on parts of the island. Officials have imposed an overnight curfew through Saturday.
In San Juan, the airport was expected to open Friday, but many other businesses remained shuttered.