More than 700,000 electricity customers in Puerto Rico were without power Wednesday after then-Tropical Storm Ernesto brought heavy rains and strong winds that downed trees in the U.S. territory, officials said.
The storm, which later strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane, did not reach Puerto Rico directly but dropped about 25 centimeters of rain in the region of the city of Barranquitas, the National Weather Service said.
Luma Energy, the private company responsible for electricity supply in Puerto Rico, said the focus of restoration would be on areas such as hospitals and water treatment infrastructure.
No deaths were reported in connection with the storm.
On Wednesday morning, alarms began to sound in the municipality of Toa Baja, urging residents of the western part of the city to evacuate their homes as persistent rain from Ernesto caused the main river there to overflow, exposing even more families to dangerous flooding.
Around 730,000 households were without power after the storm, which passed through the north of the island with wind speeds of 110 km/h, Pierluisi said.
Government officials had expected widespread power outages across the island as Puerto Rico’s fragile power grid has not been permanently restored since the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Puerto Rican Public Safety Minister Alexis Torres told reporters on Wednesday that strong winds had caused debris and large amounts of vegetation to fall, blocking roads and downing power lines.
Torres also said that at least three major rivers had overflowed their banks due to heavy rains, threatening the safety of hundreds of families.
“The risk of flooding is not over,” said Ernesto Rodríguez, director of the National Weather Service in San Juan, at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Unsafe conditions
Speaking to Telemundo Puerto Rico, NBC’s sister station on the island, mayors of four cities said conditions made it unsafe for residents to be outside their homes or shelters.
Roads and bridges in the towns of Cidra, Jayuya, Guayama and Toa Baja were blocked due to flooding and debris.
In the coastal town of Luquillo, residents used their own machetes and chainsaws to clear debris and vegetation that blocked the only access road available to the community for escape in an emergency.
Elizabeth Nieves Jiménez, of Toa Baja, told Telemundo Puerto Rico she heard the alarm and evacuated her home. She is one of about a dozen residents who voluntarily arrived at the town’s shelter late Wednesday morning. There was no electricity and shelter staff were trying to get a generator running.
As of 9:30 a.m. AST, at least 375 people were in shelters across the island, according to data posted on the Puerto Rico Emergency Portal System.
Luma Energy had not dispatched its emergency response teams as of late Wednesday morning because conditions remained unsafe to be outdoors.
“I understand that they have to ensure their safety, but people need them,” Ángel David Concepción, mayor of Cidra, told Telemundo Puerto Rico in Spanish, adding that most residents in his town do not have electricity or water. Water pumps in most parts of Puerto Rico are powered by electricity.
Pierluisi said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that Luma Energy’s brigades began operations early Wednesday afternoon.
“We want to restore power to many customers without service,” Pierluisi said in Spanish, adding that it was difficult to predict when power would be restored to 100 percent.
Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, said 1,500 emergency workers were deployed to restore power.
According to data posted on the Puerto Rico Emergency Portal System, approximately 120,000 customers were without water as of 11:15 a.m. AST.
Flash flood warnings were issued for much of Puerto Rico for the remainder of the day.
President Joe Biden signed a state of emergency declaration for Puerto Rico on Tuesday, authorizing the disbursement of aid funds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
As part of its emergency response, FEMA is prepared to provide generators and stock warehouses with emergency supplies for the immediate aftermath of the storm, Manuel Laboy, executive director of the Puerto Rican Office of Reconstruction and Resilience, said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Pierluisi said authorities would continue to monitor storm conditions throughout the day to see if schools and government offices can reopen on Thursday.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.
