‘It will essentially devastate’ Puerto Rico, governor fears
Shelters opened for Irma will remain havens for thousands
The growing hurricane trudging toward his island was bigger and potentially more destructive than any recent storms and could lay waste to huge swaths of the island, Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Monday.
Hurricane Maria, likely to pound Puerto Rico by Wednesday with 150-mph winds, will flood some parts of the island, destroy others and leave most of the nation of 3.4 million people without power, Rosselló said in an interview with USA TODAY.
“It will essentially devastate most of the island,” he said.
Puerto Rico is under the challenging position of recovering from Hurricane Irma — which skated near the country this month but mostly spared the island from widespread damage — while prepping for Maria.
The 450 shelters opened for Irma will remain in place and accept thousands of residents fleeing flood-prone areas, such as Ponce to the south and Bayamón to the north. U.S. assets, such as on-the-ground Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and U.S. search-and-rescue teams, will stay in Puerto Rico to facilitate response and recovery efforts through Maria, he said.
Rosselló’s biggest concern and challenge is convincing the thousands of Puerto Ricans who fared well through Irma that Maria will be stronger, wetter, slower — and far more dangerous.
“These couple of hours prior to the storm are going to be critical so that we make sure that people are out of harm’s way and we can save lives,” he said.
Monday, Hurricane Maria grew to a powerful Category 5 storm, forging a path on which it could smash many of the Caribbean islands that were devastated by Hurricane Irma, including the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Dominica. It’s likely to continue intensifying over the next two days and sweep across southern Puerto Rico around noon Wednesday.
Across the Caribbean, people stockpiled supplies and prepared for Maria’s arrival. In the French Caribbean territory of Martinique, authorities ordered residents to stay home.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas and St. John, people lined up at docks to try to catch last-minute boat rides off the battered islands. The islands were wrecked by Irma, which knocked out power and made hospitals uninhabitable. Maria is likely to cross very near to St. Croix, the only U.S. Virgin Island left largely unscathed by Irma.
“It’s like when you’re in the fourth quarter of a basketball game and you’re down by 50 points, and then the team that’s winning hits six 3-pointers in a row,” said Chris Currerri, 42, a St. Thomas resident whose electronic manufacturing business was badly damaged by Irma. “You’re like, ‘Ugh, we’ll never catch them now.’
“Nobody’s thrilled,” he said.
Federal aid from Washington, both logistics and actual resources, to Puerto Rico has been “phenomenal,” Rosselló said.
He’s been in close contact with officials at Homeland Security, FEMA and the White House, he said. Monday, when Rosselló asked the Trump administration for a pre-landfall disaster declaration, which frees up federal dollars and assets, he said verbal approval was swift from Washington.
“There can be many other areas where we differ on public policy,” he said, “but I have to say the response from FEMA and the federal response has been phenomenal.”
U.S. disaster officials promised Rosselló “brigades” of energy workers to help Puerto Rico reinstate power on the island after Maria. Irma knocked out power to about 1 million homes this month. Many still don’t have power.
“We can expect the energy infrastructure is going to take a big hit after this storm,” Rosselló said. “We’re going to need a lot of generators.”
Rosselló said he hopes Americans on the mainland remember how Puerto Rico helped others during Irma, including taking in more than 3,500 U.S. citizens stranded on the islands during that storm.
“After Irma, the people of Puerto Rico stood up and helped others,” he said. “We’ve done our part. But it’s likely we’re going to need a lot of help, a lot of collaboration, after this storm.”