The eye of Hurricane Maria has completed its pass across Puerto Rico, with the center of the storm now just northwest of the island. However, over half of Puerto Rico is still being lashed by hurricane force winds and the whole of the island is under a deluge of rain.
Rueters is reporting that Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage throughout Puerto Rico. Unlike Florida, where housing regulations after Hurricane Andrew meant that many areas of the state suffered little structural damage from the passage of Hurricane Irma, a large percentage of homes in Puerto Rico are lightly built of wood, often with tin roofs. The destruction of such homes can be expected to be universal. Even structures built to more stringent standards meant to withstand winds of 100 mph would not have been prepared for Maria.
Power is out to the entire island.
Maria, the second major hurricane to roar through the Caribbean this month, was carrying winds of up to 155 miles per hour (250 kph), when it made landfall near Yabucoa, on the southeast of the island of 3.4 million people.
It ripped the roofs off buildings and turned low-lying streets into rushing rivers of debris knocked down by winds.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that 65 to 70 percent of all buildings on St. Croix were damaged as the building came under the punishing winds of Maria’s eye wall.
[Scott Peake, a storm tracker for the Weather Channel] described Maria as "far worse than Hurricane Hugo in 1989." Hugo was a Category 5 storm, and the recovery and rebuilding from that storm took St. Croix years.
Lacking power and with cell service out in most areas, it will be some time before an accurate assessment of damage from Maria can be made. Even if the eye has passed offshore, much of Puerto Rico is still in the storm, still suffering wind gusts over 160 mph, and still being lashed by rain and debris.
Large areas of San Juan are known to be flooded.
"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."
The storm is now expected to edge east of the Turks and Caicos and enter the North Atlantic, hopefully to die—though the interaction with the fading Tropical Storm Jose make it hard to predict.
The US islands, which are every bit as much a part of America as Florida and Texas, have taken a brutal pounding. And seeing them through the aftermath is going to take years of investment. For now, the islands are going to require the same scale of effort and dedication to fellow citizens when it comes to humanitarian relief and simple lifesaving rescue that was given the victims of Harvey and Irma.
Speaking of which …
Saddled with economic problems and its own damage from Hurricane Irma, Puerto Rico is taking thousands of refugees from the U.S. Virgin Islands whose homes were destroyed by the storm, with a cruise ship carrying up to 2,000 more due to set sail for the U.S. territory on Wednesday. …
“The people of Puerto Rico - what big hearts you guys got because our (local) government did nothing - nothing,” said William Vonfabrice, 61, from St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Now it’s someone else’s turn.