Fears over Puerto Rico dam spark evacuation
AUTHORITIES in Puerto Rico rushed on Saturday to evacuate people living downriver from a dam said to be in danger of collapsing because of flooding from Hurricane Maria.
The drama unfolded as the US island territory, working without electricity, struggled to dig out and clean up from its disastrous brush with the hurricane, blamed for at least 33 deaths across the Caribbean.
The 1920’s era earthen dam on the Guajataca River in northwest Puerto Rico cracked on Friday, prompting the government to issue an order for 70,000 people in downstream towns to evacuate – the combined population of those towns.
Late Saturday, however, the governor’s office said it was impossible to determine exactly how many people were ordered out by local mayors, because they do not have working phones and the government has been unable to contact them.
But a Puerto Rican government official confirmed Saturday that evacuations that began Friday evening were continuing.
He said the dam had cracked, sending water gushing through and prompting fears of flash flooding.
On Friday, public safety chief Hector Pesquera had cited a different cause for the initial dam failure, according to the newspaper El Vocero. Pesquera said a drain which normally releases water from the dam in a controlled fashion had broken, sending it gushing out in torrents.
Puerto Rico was already battling dangerous floods elsewhere on the island because of Hurricane Maria, which hit before dawnWednesday as part of its furious tear across the Caribbean.
As the island is without power but for emergency generators, and without telecommunications, the governor’s entourage left a satellite phone with the mayor of Isabela so he can talk to crews manning the dam.
Governor Ricardo Rossello has called Maria the most devastating storm to hit the island in a century. A preliminary assessment said 13 people had died as a result of the storm, he said on Friday.
So far, at least 33 people have been confirmed dead as a result of Hurricane Maria, including 15 in Dominica, three in Haiti and two in Guadeloupe.
Puerto Rico’s electricity network has been crippled by the storm and engineers say it could take months for power to be fully restored.
US federal emergency chief Brock Long said ships carrying millions of meals and bottles of water were trying to dock as the island’s ports are slowly reopened.