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SOME 70,000 PEOPLE were ordered to evacuate their homes yesterday after a rain-swollen dam in Puerto Rico failed in the latest disaster caused by Hurricane Maria.
With the death toll from the storm at 33 across the Caribbean, the National Weather Service office in capital San Juan issued a flash flood warning for people living along the Guajataca River and said the 1920s earthen dam was in danger of collapsing altogether.
“All Areas surrounding the Guajataca River should evacuate NOW. Their lives are in DANGER!,” the service said in a tweet. Flooding has already begun downstream, it said.
Shortly thereafter, Governor Ricardo Rossello issued an order for some 70,000 people living in the area in the northwest of the island to get out.
According to the newspaper El Vocero, Public Safety Secretary Hector Pesquera said a drain that normally releases a stream of water from the dam in a controlled fashion had broken.
Instead the busted drain sent water gushing down a ramp-style conduit, eventually washing away huge chunks of soil from the grassy green slope of the dam, according to video on the WeatherNation website.
However the flash flood warning was only due to last until 0600 GMT, the weather service said, suggesting that the river waters were receding.
Puerto Rico was already battling dangerous floods after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island early Wednesday. Rescuers raced against time to reach trapped residents.
Rossello has called Maria the most devastating storm in a century after it destroyed the US territory’s electricity and telecommunications infrastructure.
Rossello told CNN the island is lacking communications and the preliminary assessment at this point is 13 fatalities.
“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.”
The National Hurricane Center said some areas in Puerto Rico could see 40 inches (more than a meter) of rain from Maria, and Rossello warned of dangerous mudslides brought on by the deluge.
“We have a lot of flooding, we have reports of complete devastation of vulnerable housing. Of course it’s still raining over here.”
SOS text
Maria has been blamed for at least 33 deaths, including 15 in Dominica, three in Haiti and two in Guadeloupe.
After lamenting that Puerto Rico had been “absolutely obliterated” by Maria, US President Donald Trump spoke with Governor Rossello Thursday night and promised to speed up relief efforts.
Although the southeast coast suffered the worst damage, no part of the island escaped the storm’s wrath, including the capital San Juan where there was widespread flooding.
The city’s mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, said the biggest need was getting emergency medication and supplies to vulnerable people who are stranded in their homes.
“I got an SOS from (an elderly home) and it was a text like from a horror movie. It said if anybody can hear us, please, we are stuck here and we can’t get out and we have no power and we have very little water left. We got there just in time.”
Network crippled
The torrential rain had turned some roads into muddy brown rivers, impassable to all but the largest of vehicles.
Toppled trees, street signs and power cables were strewn across roads that were also littered with debris.
Puerto Rico’s electricity network has been crippled by the storm and engineers say it could take months for power to be fully restored.
The local electricity board has promised that their priority will be to restore power to hospitals, water treatment plants and pumping stations.
Brock Long, who heads the US federal government’s emergency management agency FEMA, said that ships carrying millions of meals and bottled 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 and caused more than 18,000 people to evacuate, according to a statement by the office of president Danilo Medina.
As of Friday night, Maria was a Category Three hurricane with winds of 125 miles per hour (205 kilometers per hour), churning in the sea some 365 miles east of the central Bahamas.
Heavy rains and high winds began hitting the archipelago on Thursday afternoon.
The government opened new shelters after several buildings which had been used during Hurricane Irma earlier this month were damaged and authorities feared they might not hold up under another fierce storm.
Maria previously tore through several Caribbean islands, claiming the highest toll on Dominica, which has a population of around 72,000 and has been largely cut off from the outside world.
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Absolutely brilliant. This is very positive and a natural tourist destination for the nature conscious.
@ Marlon Major
very true and possibly the answer to the poll today about holiday plans
500k!!! My goodness!!
Seriously though Ireland has some stunning places tucked away! People really need to get out and start exploring! There is always something new to see!
Walked the Grand Canal with the bro a few years ago. Took 4 days and passed thru some fantastically unspoilt countryside. Couldn’t recommend highly enough, and it’s out there ready and waiting❕
Did you camp along the way Tony?
I’d like to say yes but we stayed in B&Bs, in Sallins, Edenderry and Tullamore. It actually added to the experience in that we got to meet locals each night…and didn’t have to carry as much on our backs!
Cycling around ireland for charity in august, might try and take this in, sounds nice.
Ireland’s own Camino!
How much of it is along busy roads?
Several of these way-marked routes are unusable due to heavy motor traffic and there is no joy walking in single file as cars and trucks speed past you.
Well don’t walk it then stay in and have a good moan
I’d love to do it!
I’d love to do it to Ailis. Maybe we could do it together.
Ailís, I think ‘Good News Caravan’ is asking you out. I sense another TheJournal.ie dating story!
Maybe we could! Can you start a fire using flint and kindling should the unthinkable happen? That is, we take a wrong turn and are lost to civillisation and have to resort to making a cave habitable and killing our own meat.
The romance is clearly blossoming. Good luck you two!
You like meat too? I will start saving for that ring.
Looks class. Would love to get on the bike and do it over the holidays. Fair play to all involved… I’d imagine you would come across some really interesting areas off the beaten track. I live near the great southern trail in limerick (which is a conversion of the old railway from limerick to Tralee) and you see some very cool places you would never see on the road and I can imagine this would be the same…
Sounds good Barry. I walked part of the Beara-Breifne Way in Galway recently, which is really near my house. It was amazing to see parts of the country that I’ve never seen before and that were right on my doorstep.
Yeah that’s it Amy… Tis great to see places that you’d never come across other than going out for an oul ramble… We walked the length of Valentia island today off road and came across some
class spots… Thank god I got an A in leaving cert geography, otherwise no one would have been able to identify that sea stack/sea arch
Is there a link to a map version of the walkway?
http://bbgreenway.com/clans/orourke.html Check it out Neil.
Right on Micheal,
The Leitrim end should be worth seeing ,really beautiful
Right on Micheal , the Leitrim end should be worth seeing, really beauty full
my two favourite counties,now i can walk :)
Yet we cant build proper roads between these counties!
You are confusing we, the people, with an inept government.
In one case we get one vote every 5yrs or so, in the other we see what we can do when we take matters into our own hands as communities.
Great achievement, looks like I’ll be going on a little holiday this year after all. They deserve my meager support.
You can download all walks on the Heritage Council website and can get your local area maps in printed form at your local tourist office.
Looks like a great walk for a charity event, might look into this further :)
I know the West Cork section is actually the old railway line hooking up Bantry, Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Bandon to Cork city. The very idea that they are turning it into a walking and cycling path kills any notion of these towns ever getting connected by rail again.
That’s because they don’t need it, totally impractical to ever open such a line again. A good quality bus service is more than adequate for towns like that. They had trains at time when there was no auto transport and terrible roads.
A fantastic idea, and I really hope it takes off.
I’d don’t think so Kevin. Middleton has a train link build in the last few years. It’s population is similar to that of Bandon if not less. The people of East Cork are pushing for the line to be extended to Youghal which has a population of just about the same as Clonakilty, that’s we’re the East Cork line would end but a West Cork line would still have Skibereen and Bantry to go which also have a similar population to all the other towns I mentioned.
Nice picture Amy, are you free for a walk sometime ?
Thanks RB… Not sure if I’d make all 500k. Nice shades.
You look fit enough to me !!!
Thanks!
This is great that they have linked up these walks.
However this needs a good website with good maps. it needs more promotion and symbol/ logo just like the camino de Santiago.
Woohoo! Ireland’s answer to the Camino de Santiago – without the weather, cheap accommodation or cheap wine!
very good article, & stunning photos!
Thank you
I have read the book “The last prince of Ireland” by Morgan Ellwyn. A must read! Truly amazing and inspiring. From a fellow O’Sullivan
Wondering which leitrim villlage has the stone wall remains of building relating to his final destination in leitrim?!
Having trouble finding the Heritage Council website for the map-anyone got a link? Thanks
does anyone know if the villages close enough to find accommodation every night?
have your say