Hurricane Maria devastates Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria was punishing Puerto Rico on Wednesday — uprooting trees, unleashing massive flooding and even breaking two National Weather Service radars on the island.
“This is total devastation,” Carlos Mercader, a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s governor, told CNN. “Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the same. … This is something of historic proportions.”
Gov. Ricardo Rossello warned of heavy rains and flooding but urged people to have faith.
“We are stronger than any hurricane. Together, we will rebuild,” he said.
So far, Maria has dumped 20 inches of rain across the island.
The El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported that an emergency medical station in the northern town of Arecibo lost its roof, and communication was severed with several emergency management stations.
People calling local radio stations reported that doors were flying off hinges and a water tank flew away in the island’s southern region.
“There is debris flying through the air, there are bins … we’ve seen trees broken off, and balconies broken off and these are substantial buildings,” Sky News reporter Mark Austin said.
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Asked if the island had been evacuated, Austin said there were still many people inside their homes.
“I’ve got to tell you that many of the homes in Puerto Rico just will not stand this,” he said.
“The other problem here is that they’ve just been through Hurricane Irma so there is already serious damage. Puerto Rico is also going through the most terrible of economic times … a decade of recession. They really don’t need this, as well.”
Rosita Galguerra, 66, who was riding out the storm with her husband in the Rio Piedras neighborhood of San Juan, described what she was seeing as “incredible.”
“The rain is horizontal and all the trees are on the ground,” she told the Miami Herald. “The house is trembling — and my house is made of concrete with a concrete roof. The winds are like out of a horror movie and it’s gusts, gusts, gusts. The island is going to be completely destroyed.”