Puerto Rico braces for Dorian as it nears hurricane force

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Puerto Rico on Wednesday faced its first major test of emergency preparedness since the 2017 devastation of hurricane Maria as tropical storm Dorian approached the U.S. territory at near-hurricane force — and forecasters said it could grow to Category 3 status as it nears the U.S. mainland later.

The storm was expected to move near the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, with landslides, widespread flooding and power outages possible in Puerto Rico.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning for the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Dorian prompted President Donald Trump to declare an emergency Tuesday night and order federal assistance for local authorities.

“It’s possible it could turn into a hurricane before it reaches Puerto Rico,” Roberto Garcia, director of U.S. National Weather Service San Juan, said during a news conference on Wednesday.

However, he said the forecast could keep changing, adding that late shifts occur with storms such as Dorian that do not have a well-defined centre.

At 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Dorian was about 40 kilometres southeast of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The hurricane center said it had strengthened slightly, with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h while moving northwest at 20 km/h. The centre said it could grow into a dangerous Category 3 storm as it pushes northwest in the general direction of Florida.

The storm was expected to dump 10 to 15 centimetres of rain, with isolated amounts of 20 cm.

It’s a forecast that worries many in Puerto Rico because blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes nearly two years after Maria. The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria, a Category 4 storm.

Ramonita Torres, a thin, stooped, 74year-old woman, lives by herself in the impoverished, flood-prone neighbourhood of Las Monjas in the capital of San Juan. She was still trying to rebuild the home she nearly lost after Maria but was not able to secure the pieces of zinc that now serve as her roof.

“There’s no money for that,” she said, shaking her head.

Dorian earlier had been projected to brush the western part of the U.S. territory, and the change in the storm’s course caught many off-guard on the tiny island of Vieques just east of Puerto Rico, a popular tourist destination that now lies in Dorian’s path.

Dorian caused power outages and downed trees in Barbados and St. Lucia earlier this week.

Although top government officials in Puerto Rico said they were prepared for the storm and had sufficient equipment, a couple of mayors, including those in the western region, said they did not have enough generators or shelters that were properly set up.

Jose Ortiz, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, acknowledged that the distribution system still has weak areas and could “suffer” under winds of 80 to 95 km/h. However, he stressed the agency has the needed inventory, including more than 120,000 lights, 23,000 poles and 7,400 transformers.

But Freddyson Martínez, vice-president of a power workers’ union, told The Associated Press that while the electric grid has improved in some areas, he worries about a lack of power line workers and post-Maria patches that feature lines affixed to palm trees.

The island’s transportation secretary acknowledged that crews are still rebuilding roads damaged or blocked by Maria, more than 1,000 of which remain blocked by that storm’s landslides.

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez urged those living in flood-prone areas or under a blue tarp to move into one of the island’s 360 shelters.

Officials also said public schools and government offices would remain closed through at least Thursday.

“We learned our lesson quite well after Maria,” Vazquez said. “We are going to be much better prepared.”

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. closed schools and government offices and said he would implement a curfew until Thursday, adding officials would soon open more shelters.