![]() “In terms of the coordination we’ve seen, there’s a big difference. Pierluisi, a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party who took office in 2021, said in a news conference. “Maria served as a lesson, an exercise for our emergency response teams at all levels,” Mr. Still, he said, the local government’s response had so far been “exemplary” compared with what happened after Maria. Pierluisi stressed that officials were still in the rescue-and-response phase of the emergency and had not begun to assess the scale of the damage, or determine the island’s path to recovery. About 75 percent of cellphone towers were still functioning after the storm passed, compared with the near-total signal wipeout five years ago. The island’s hospitals were running on backup generators, in stark contrast to 2017, when many lost power, damaging medical equipment and leaving hundreds of sick patients dangerously at risk. “I’ve never seen that before.”Ĭomparisons to Hurricane Maria were inevitable, from both residents and officials. “A LUMA brigade just drove by my house,” she said. The bridge was put up after Hurricane Maria to connect devastated neighborhoods in the area, and a new, permanent bridge was scheduled to go up in 2024.īut she suddenly had a sign that things were changing for the better: Trucks from Puerto Rico’s power company, LUMA, appeared on her street. A temporary bridge erected over the Guaonica River in Utuado buckled, its demise captured on dramatic video as rushing waters and debris washed it away. In the town of Cayey, residents had to clear out the mud after the La Plata River surged and almost completely submerged a two-story house. Pierluisi estimated - a sobering reminder that a storm’s categorization under the Saffir-Simpson scale considers its maximum wind speeds, but not its rainfall or storm surge potential. ![]() The damage from Fiona’s floodwaters is expected to be vast - in the “billions,” Mr. Most customers who had electricity on Monday, including a couple of hospitals, were in the San Juan metropolitan area, which was spared the worst of Hurricane Fiona’s rains. New York said more than 100 Spanish-speaking members of the State Police would help clear streets, direct traffic and respond to other needs in Puerto Rico. Pierluisi from Air Force One as the president flew back from the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London, according to the White House. President Biden issued an emergency declaration on Sunday, unlocking federal funding and FEMA support. Pierluisi said he had been coordinating with the White House to receive assistance. In Puerto Rico, overflowing waterways and the loss of power caused pumps to fail, leaving 70 percent of households and businesses that rely on the public water and sewer system without potable water. It is not forecast to approach the East Coast of the United States. The storm is expected to pass near the islands of Turks and Caicos on Tuesday before strengthening at sea into a major hurricane - a Category 3 or higher - by Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. Heavy rain and 90-mile-per-hour winds set off mudslides that shuttered resorts and damaged highways, officials said. As Hurricane Fiona moved westward, it battered the eastern provinces of the Dominican Republic, home to one of the largest tourism industries in the Caribbean.
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