About 70,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes after a rain-swollen dam in Puerto Rico failed in the latest disaster caused by Hurricane Maria, which was yesterday expected to head into open waters.
With the storm death toll rising to 33 across the Caribbean, the US National Weather Service’s San Juan office issued a flash-flood warning for people living along the Guajataca River in the northwest of the island, saying an earthen dam was in danger of collapsing.
“All Areas surrounding the Guajataca River should evacuate NOW. Their lives are in DANGER,” the office said on Twitter on Friday, saying flooding had already begun downstream.
Photo: AP
Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello also issued an order for 70,000 people living in the area to flee.
Puerto Rican Safety and Public Protection Commissioner Hector Pesquera said a drain that normally releases water from the dam in a controlled fashion had stopped working, newspaper El Vocero reported.
Footage from WeatherNation TV showed water gushing down a ramp-style conduit, washing away huge chunks of soil from the grassy green slopes of the dam.
Early yesterday, the office extended the warning to the western Quebradillas and eastern Isabela areas, home to another 8,000 people.
Puerto Rico was already battling dangerous floods after Hurricane Maria hit early on Wednesday, devastating the Caribbean island.
Rossello has called Maria the most devastating storm in a century after it destroyed the US territory’s electricity and telecommunications infrastructure.
A preliminary assessment said 13 people had died so far as a result of the storm, he told CNN.
“Right now our efforts are to make sure we have everybody safe, that we can rescue people. Our efforts have already produced almost 700 rescues, so we’re clearly focused on that,” Rossello said.
The US National Hurricane Center said Maria was tilting toward the western Atlantic and away from the Bahamas, where storm warnings were canceled.
It was a welcome reprieve for the archipelago that had already been badly battered by Hurricane Irma earlier this month.
So far, at least 33 people have been confirmed dead as a result of Hurricane Maria, including 15 in Dominica, three in Haiti and two in Guadeloupe.
After speaking with Rossello on Thursday night, US President Donald Trump promised to speed up relief efforts.
Of the 13 victims, eight died in the northern town of Toa Baja, one of the worst-hit areas that was ravaged by winds of more than 200kph and then hit by flooding when the island’s largest river, La Plata, burst its banks.
Many residents did not evacuate on time, while others said they never heard the warning sirens.
Others could be seen returning home after several days to begin the arduous process of clearing their homes of the heavy mud left by the floodwaters in order to start the process of rebuilding.
Across the island, streets were littered with debris from the storm, with toppled trees, street signs and power cables strewn everywhere.
The torrential rain also turned some roads into muddy brown rivers, impassable to all but the largest of vehicles.
Puerto Rico’s electricity network has been crippled by the storm and engineers have said it could take months for power to be fully restored.
US Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said ships carrying millions of meals and bottles of water were trying to dock as the island’s ports are slowly reopened.
After devastating Puerto Rico, the storm headed west toward the Dominican Republic, where it damaged nearly 5,000 homes, forcing the evacuation of more than 18,000 people, the president’s office said.
By yesterday morning, Maria had been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 193kph that was churning in the sea about 550km east of the central Bahamas.
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