Hurricane Maria pounds Puerto Rico after killing 7 people in Dominica
Story highlights
- Maria has killed at least 7 people on the island of Dominica, an official said
- "This is total devastation. Puerto Rico ... will not be the same," a spokesman said
San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN)Hurricane
Maria pummeled Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning, ripping trees out of
the ground and hammering two-thirds of the island with hurricane-force
winds.
"This is
total devastation," said Carlos Mercader, a spokesman for Puerto Rico's
governor. "Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the
same. ... This is something of historic proportions."
Maria
has killed seven people on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica,
said Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. Browne
said he had been communicating with the Prime Minister of Dominica,
Roosevelt Skerrit, whose own house was shredded by the storm.
Maria
made landfall in Puerto Rico on Wednesday near the city of Yabucoa with
winds of 155 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. By 10 a.m., those
winds had weakened to 145 mph, but Maria was still a Category 4
hurricane capable of ripping roofs off houses.
The storm was so fierce, it broke two National Weather Service radars on the island.
Calls for rescue immediately started pouring in -- but to no avail.
"First responders cannot go out there," Mercader said, echoing the governor's earlier warning that emergency crews wouldn't go outside in winds stronger than 50 mph.
Maria
was expected to cause widespread power outages across Puerto Rico.
Shortly after landfall, the storm had wiped out power in the east coast
city of Fajardo.
Thousands of Puerto Ricans
heeded calls to go to emergency shelters. "As of 2:30 a.m. we count
10,059 refugees and 189 pets (in shelters)," the island's governor,
Ricardo Rosselló, tweeted.
Maria became the first
hurricane of Category 4 strength or higher in nearly 80 years to hit the
US territory, home to 3.3 million people.
As
residents hunkered down in homes and shelters ahead of the direct
impact, others in the most vulnerable, low-lying, flood-prone areas were
evacuated.
The Puerto Rico
Convention Center in San Juan -- which was still housing Hurricane Irma
evacuees from other Caribbean islands -- prepared to accept thousands
more residents.
Potentially 'strongest ever' storm
The storm was likely to be a record-breaking event, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.
"This
could potentially be the strongest hurricane to ever reach the shores
of Puerto Rico," he said from San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital.
"A
lot of people remember or have heard of the storms that hit in 1928 and
1930. Well, guess what? This could pale those in comparison. ... It
will go down in the record books."
Storm surges of 6 to 9 feet were expected.
"Hurricane Maria is really
scraping the upper echelon of what's possible with hurricanes, (with)
175 mph sustained winds right around the center of the storm," Van Dam
said Tuesday.
Photos: Hurricane Maria hits the Caribbean
The
island's mountainous terrain was likely to act like a barrier and
squeeze a lot of moisture out of Maria, he said, producing as much as 2
feet of rain in some places. That could lead to flash flooding, which
Rosselló stressed often is the top cause of death following a storm like
this.
Local politicians warned of the storm's potential impact but also heralded the islanders' spirit.
"We
are going to be hit hard," San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told CNN.
"But we are blessed that we have what it takes to move and push on. We
will make it, I bet you. I have no doubt, we're going to make it."
Stocking up
Residents
in San Juan made sure to stock up ahead of the hurricane's arrival. A
sign on one store shelf asked customers on Tuesday to limit themselves
to two cases of water, but the supply had already run out by the time a
CNN team arrived. The store still had food and other supplies.
At a gas station across the
street, the attendant said the station ran out of regular gas Tuesday
morning, then ran out of premium.
Shoppers
hunting for essentials, such as ice, waited for hours to buy the
commodity, which would be used to keep perishables cool during a power
outage.
The government also had been "organizing" ahead of the storm, Rosselló told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
"We
can get people out of harm's way -- flooding regions -- and make their
way to safe shelters," he said. "What we're doing is making sure people
can pass through, they can weather the storm."
"It's
not going to be comfortable, but they're going to be safe. This is our
key objective," he said. "We understand infrastructure is going to be
devastated. We're going to have to rebuild. ... Lives are not
replaceable, but infrastructure is."
Tourists stranded
Some
tourists found themselves stranded on the island as flights, already
overbooked and increasingly expensive, became unavailable.
Heather
Farrell was on her honeymoon with her husband, Luke, after their
September 9 wedding. The couple had tried to cut the trip short when it
became apparent they were in Maria's firing line, she said.
"We
did try to get off, as early as Saturday, but all flights were either
booked or canceled. We actually are on the ocean -- our room faces the
ocean. It's pretty windy, but there is no rain. We'll stay inside for
now," she said.
Hotel staff had asked all guests to head downstairs early Wednesday morning to take shelter in a safe room, Farrell said.
"I would rather be home than here, but I guess we're making the best of it," she said.
Nick Bailey, Brandon Edwards
and John Michael Berndt -- three friends from northern California --
chose this week to vacation on the island. They were aware of Maria,
which was only a tropical depression when they left California.
"Our
hostel is taking good care of us," Berndt said, adding that staff there
had boarded all the windows and created a concrete hurricane barrier.
"We tried to take flights out last minute but that didn't work so we're
going to ride through the storm."
"This is a good area, apparently," Bailey said. "It's close to hospitals and emergency centers."
The men also were moved to rooms deeper inside the hostel -- without any windows.
Prime Minister's house destroyed
As
Maria pushed through the Caribbean toward Puerto Rico, two people were
missing after a boat sank off the coast of La Désirade, a small island
near the mainland of Guadeloupe. About 80,000 people, or 40% of
households on the island, were left without power, the government said.
Hurricane Maria caused widespread flooding Tuesday in Point-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
The
storm also caused "widespread devastation" in Dominica, the country's
Prime Minister said Tuesday. Maria ripped off the roof of his own house
and left much of the island -- population 73,000 -- in ruins.
In just 30 hours, Maria's intensity exploded from 65 mph on Sunday to 160 mph by Monday night, the National Hurricane Center said.
No comments:
Post a Comment