Isaias hits islands on way to U.S.

SAN JUAN — Tropical Storm Isaias battered Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on Thursday as it continued on a forecast track toward the U.S. East Coast.

The storm unleashed small landslides and caused widespread flooding and power outages on an island recovering from previous hurricanes and earthquakes.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds of 60 mph also toppled trees and some telephone and electrical cables across Puerto Rico.

Especially hard hit was the territory’s southern region, which still shakes daily.

Santos Seda, mayor of the southwest coastal town of Guanica, said he has received reports of downed trees and inundated neighborhoods where earthquake-damaged homes still stand.

“The emotional state of people is deteriorating more every day,” he said.

Isaias was centered about 85 miles southeast of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

It was moving northwest at 20 mph and its center was forecast to move near the southeastern Bahamas by early Friday.

Isaias knocked out power to more than 400,000 customers across Puerto Rico, including hospitals that switched to generators, and left some 150,000 customers without water, according to government officials.

Crews opened the gates of one dam, which last month had such a low water level that it led officials to cut service every other day for some 140,000 customers. Outages also were reported in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Minor damage was reported elsewhere across Puerto Rico.

The hurricane center said Isaias is not expected to become a hurricane before reaching the U.S. mainland.