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Bryophytes, mosses that grow on tree trunks, collect a lot of the water that goes down the mountain, Ms. Gónzalez said. But trees were stripped of the mosses, especially on the face that received the direct fury of Maria's winds.

The bird population also suffered a devastating hit. Birds are typically affected after hurricanes ravage trees of the food they eat. But on an initial scouting trip to the accessible parts of the forest, Ms. Gónzalez said she saw the bodies of dozens of blackbirds and pearly-eyed thrashers that had died because of the hurricane's galloping gusts.

The livelihood of the Puerto Rican parrot, an endangered species living in El Yunque and Río Abajo State Forest, is of special concern. The colorful bright-green bird with a distinctive red stripe above its beak is found only in Puerto Rico and is the only native parrot species in the United States.

"The Puerto Rican parrot is an iconic species of the island," Marisel López, leader of the The Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program, of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, said. "It's our legacy."

While there were tens of thousands in pre-Columbian times, the parrot population dwindled to 13 by 1973 because of deforestation, hunting and species competition. Conservation efforts since then have helped rebuild the population, and before Maria, the captive and wild population combined numbered over 500, Ms. López said. At least seven parrots died in captivity because of the stress induced by the hurricane and the high heat in the days after because of the lack of canopy, she said.

Ms. López, whose team is trying to gain access to the western part of El Yunque where the parrots live, said the toll in the wild population was not known.

The tourism industry in Puerto Rico is deeply intertwined with its environment.

About 1.2 million people visit El Yunque every year for its hiking trails, zip-lining, camping and waterfalls. But the rain forest has remained closed since Maria left roads inaccessible and all its recreational facilities received blows, Ms. Wallace, the forest supervisor, said.

"We don't know how long it is going to take to reopen," she said.

And on an island, where 58 percent of the acreage is forests, Maria's ecological damage was widespread.

The population of mountain coquí, one of the 14 species of a small native frog, with a distinctive mating call heard at night across the island, was severely decimated by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, Rafael Joglar, a professor of biology at the University of Puerto Rico, said.

Hurricane Maria could be the final straw for that species, Mr. Joglar said.

"It worries us that it'll be the next species to disappear in Puerto Rico," Mr. Joglar, a herpetologist, said. "The worst would be if we get a dry season - that would be the mortal blow other than the hurricane."

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Another Victim of Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico's Treasured Rainforest

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Bryophytes, mosses that grow on tree trunks, collect a lot of the water that goes down the mountain, Ms. Gónzalez said. But trees were stripped of the mosses, especially on the face that received the direct fury of Maria's winds. The bird population also suffered a devastating hit.

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Puerto Rico Totally Devastated By Hurricane Maria

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Read More At: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/25/16360488/hurricane-maria-2017-puerto-rico-recovery-san-juan-hospitals-electricty-cell-service Support The Show On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seculartalk Here's Our Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/?tag=seculacom-20 Follow Kyle on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kylekulinski Like the show on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SecularTalk Clip from The Kyle Kulinski Show, which airs live on Blog Talk Radio and Secular Talk Radio Monday - Friday 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Eastern time zone.

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Island of Puerto Rico 'destroyed' by Hurricane Maria

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Hurricane Maria whirled through Puerto Rico almost a week ago, but we still don't know the full extent of the devastation that the Category 4 storm left behind.

The hurricane hit the island with winds spinning at 155 miles per hour, tearing down power lines and cell towers. More than 11,400 people remain in over 150 shelters throughout Puerto Rico, says Delyris Aquino, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Associated Press reported a higher number on Sunday, writing that there are more than 15,000 people in shelters. The death toll also continues to rise: at least 16 people were killed by the storm, .

Here's what we know so far:
Electricity
More than 3.4 million US citizens are still almost entirely without power as the debt-ridden Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority continues to assess the damage. The problem isn't that Hurricane Maria knocked out power plants, the Department of Energy tells The Verge, it's that the storm took out most of the 2,400 miles of transmission lines that carry electricity from the plants to major population centers.

As of Monday afternoon, three hospitals have been connected to the grid, Aquino tells The Verge. These include the the Hima San Pablo Hospital, and the Centro Médico Hospital in San Juan. "We're doing a lot of work here, so the situation is getting better and better," Aquino says.
Communication and travel
With more than 91 percent of the cell towers down across the island, people are still desperately trying to contact loved ones. "We receive a lot of requests, thousands of requests per day" for updates about people who were in Puerto Rico when the storm hit, Aquino says. "There are a lot of people concerned about their families." She recommends that people use the American Red Cross Safe and Well website to let family and friends know they're safe.

Roads blocked by debris have also prevented emergency personnel from contacting six of Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities, Aquino said on Monday afternoon. The government of Puerto Rico and the US Army Corps of Engineers are working on clearing the roads to try to get to areas isolated by the storm.

Airports, including the San Juan airport, are also reopening - but with limited capacity, Puerto Rico-based journalist Rafael Lenin López tweeted. Hundreds of passengers were still stranded in San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport on Monday, trying to get on the next available flights, Reuters reports.

A handful of Puerto Rico's ports have been reopened during daylight hours only, according to the latest situation report from the Department of Energy.

Food and water
With ports and airports incapacitated for almost a week, food remains scarce in Puerto Rico. (The island imports most of its food.) Some supermarkets have reopened, but they're lined with empty shelves, and it may take some time for the stores to restock.

Roughly 44 percent of people in Puerto Rico still lack drinking water, according to the Department of Defense. (FEMA's Aquino, who's based on the island, says she, too, is without water.) A team from the Environmental Protection Agency arrived in Puerto Rico yesterday to make sure that hospitals have clean water, FEMA reports.

The storm also destroyed about 80 percent of Puerto Rico's crops in just a few hours. That's a $780 million hit to the island's agricultural industry, according to .

The Arecibo Observatory
The eye of Maria passed very close by Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, a giant radio telescope operated by the National Science Foundation, which has a main dish that stretches 1,000 feet in diameter. The telescope is used to detect radio waves, and it's helped astronomers discover everything from the first exoplanets to neutron stars. The observatory has been critical for SETI, or the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and it's also been showcased in numerous films, including Contact and the James Bond movie Goldeneye.

All the staff who remained on site at the observatory during the storm have been reported safe, but the telescope sustained some damage. An antenna that hangs suspended above the dish broke off and fell onto the dish, damaging some panels, says Alessondra Springmann, an asteroid and comet researcher at the University of Arizona, who has been in communication with Arecibo staff. This 430-megahertz line feed measures about 96 feet long, and a recent picture of the observatory shows that about 75 percent of it seems to be missing. The antenna is used for planetary radar, and it's one of the main instruments used to study a part of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere. "It's a pretty versatile tool," says Springmann. "Of course that can be replaced, but it takes time and money."

If segments of the dish have been damaged, they'll need to be replaced and realigned, too, to make sure they properly reflect radio waves. However, the full extent of the damage in the dish is not yet known. "Preliminary assessments are that the damage is less severe than for many other parts of Puerto Rico," a spokesperson for the National Science Foundation said in an email to The Verge. The NSF doesn't know when damage to the dish will be fully assessed or when science observations will resume: these are secondary priorities to the recovery of Puerto Rico's population.

Early reports indicated that the massive influx of stormwater from Hurricane Maria had cracked Puerto Rico's Guajataca Dam - leaving a 34-inch fissure, according to The New York Times. (El Nuevo Dia reports a 24-inch crack, and the US Army Corps of Engineers did not respond to repeated requests for clarification.)

The dam holds about 11 billion gallons of water, and concerns that the dam might fail prompted the government to urge the 70,000 people who live nearby to evacuate. ( Local officials told the AP that the number of people in harm's way was likely smaller.) A flash flood warning remains downstream of the dam.

The US Army Corps of Engineers sent a team of experts to assess the damage, Aquino says. "What they've been doing is reducing the amount of water that the dam has right now," she says, in order to decrease the pressure on the cracked portion. "With the reduction of the water that is in the dam, they have been able to keep it in a safe situation."

The Army engineers found the dam "intact but in need of reinforcement to ensure stability," according to an update from the DoD.
What to do
If you want to help people affected by Hurricane Maria, Vox rounded up a list of organizations that you can donate to, including local charities such as ConPRmetidos. has also compiled a list of organizations, but urged doing your own research. To help, Vox reviewed some best practices to keep in mind when donating money to charity.
Update September 26th, 9:30pm: Updated to include the Department of Defense's estimates about the percentage of people without water, and the US Army Corps of Engineers' assessment of the Guajataca Dam.

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How Puerto Rico is trying to recover from Hurricane Maria's devastation

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Hurricane Maria whirled through Puerto Rico almost a week ago, but we still don't know the full extent of the devastation that the Category 4 storm left behind. The hurricane hit the island with winds spinning at 155 miles per hour, tearing down power lines and cell towers.

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Then came Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Immediate needs on the island include search and rescue, getting communications back up and clearing roads to get goods and help to people who need it. Beyond that, though, Puerto Rico needs Congress to help it recover from the devastation wrought by economic strategies that have failed the island for decades.

Congress and the Trump administration cannot hide behind the Financial Oversight Board created by Promesa - a semi-colonial entity that in effect controls Puerto Rico's future. To undo the damage done by years of neglect and abuse by corporations that strip-mined profits out of Puerto Rico with federal blessing, Congress must act to create conditions for a sustainable economy.

That plan must begin with the collapsing health system. Puerto Rico is in urgent need of the $295 million in Medicaid funding that Congress approved in the spring, and additional funds to rebuild a system that is putting some of the country's sickest, poorest and most vulnerable citizens at risk.

On Thursday, the Trump administration said it would temporarily waive the century-old Jones Act, which Puerto Rican officials said was slowing delivery of relief supplies. The act requires ships carrying cargo to the island to be built and owned by Americans, and to make port in the mainland United States before continuing on to Puerto Rico. A temporary waiver will help, but it is not enough; Congress must repeal the act itself, because it has hindered economic growth and stability on the island even in the best of times.

In addition, whatever emergency assistance the Federal Emergency Management Agency sends must come with no strings attached.

It's time we faced facts about Puerto Rico's debt: as former Governor Padilla said, it's unpayable. The only thing Promesa has done for the people of Puerto Rico is put a temporary stay on claims from bondholders and other creditors. Even as he acknowledged the disaster, President Trump reminded people on Monday that the island, "which was already suffering from broken infrastructure and massive debt, is in deep trouble."

It would be immoral to insist that before Puerto Ricans can rebuild their homes, hospitals, schools and roads, they must pay back this onerous debt. Instead, repayment must be postponed, maybe even eliminated. The banks that have benefited from the debt must take their own losses and let people come first.

Already, the vultures have been circling. Even as Maria hit Puerto Rico, hedge fund creditors were filing motions in court to further their claims to be repaid - sparing no thought for need for rescue, recovery and rebuilding in the coming months.

A good model for recovery and moving forward is the Marshall Plan, which Washington passed into law after World War II to help rebuild the economies of Western Europe, restoring confidence and prosperity for generations.

In the past few years, Puerto Ricans like me across the United States have come together to support our families still on the island, and to demand an end to the cuts that have made life harder and harder for our parents, our brothers and sisters. We will send help to them and our communities, but we must also defend them in the States, by resisting any measures from Washington that will make matters worse.

As the president of a union that represents thousands of Puerto Ricans along the East Coast - from Boston to New York to Florida - I will push our congressional representatives to extend the moratorium on the debt service and create a comprehensive plan to get the island back on its feet.

In the past, terrible storms like the one in 1928 set Puerto Rico back. I hope we can use this opportunity to make changes that will leave the island more resilient.

As I await news from my family, I think about the long road back to normality ahead of us. And I hope our fellow Americans will stand in solidarity with us and demand lasting relief from the crisis we face today.

All we really need, like the tropical forests crippled by the storm, is an opportunity to grow again, in a sustainable and more equitable way.

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Opinion | Washington Set Puerto Rico Up for Disaster

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Then came Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Immediate needs on the island include search and rescue, getting communications back up and clearing roads to get goods and help to people who need it. Beyond that, though, Puerto Rico needs Congress to help it recover from the devastation wrought by economic strategies that have failed the island for decades.

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Last week, Puerto Rico was lucky. This week, it's not. The majority of the U.S. territory was spared the worst from Hurricane Irma, the Category 4 storm that devastated the lower Florida Keys and Caribbean islands including St. Martin and Barbuda . But now Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 monster with 165 mph winds , is headed straight for the heart of the island; every meteorological prediction shows the storm pummeling Puerto Rico. Rain is already falling, and the eye is expected to hit as early as Tuesday evening.

"[Maria] will essentially devastate most of the island," Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said in a Monday interview with USA Today. Most of the nation's 3.4 million residents will lose power, structures will be destroyed, and neighborhoods will be flooded. There will be food and supply shortages. People will die. And the recovery will be especially difficult due to Puerto Rico's bankruptcy and the $1 billion in damage wrought by Irma. But on top of all this, Maria could worsen the many environmental calamities that already exist on the island, posing even greater threats to public health-particularly in low-income areas-as boricuas struggle to recover from the storm.

nhc.noaa.gov

In some ways, Puerto Rico will face familiar environmental threats caused by major hurricanes, but they'll be compounded by the island's financial and environmental woes. For instance, w astewater pumping systems failed in Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, causing major sewage spills. The same will likely happen in Puerto Rico, where most pumping stations run on electric power, but may be much worse due to the island's " degraded and unsafe " electricity system. The local energy authority has already said it could take up to four months to restore power, likely resulting in prolonged sewage releases.

Also like Florida and Texas, Puerto Rico has Superfund sites-23, to be exact-that risk contaminating soil and groundwater, one of which is among the most complicated, expensive Superfund sites in the U.S. For six decades, the military used the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a bomb-test site, resulting in widespread contamination of three quarters of the small island. Many claim this contamination has caused the heightened cancer rates among the 9,000 people who live there. Unexploded bombs, bullets, and projectiles are all over Vieques, according to Judith Enck, the former EPA administrator for Region 2, which covers Puerto Rico. " I am concerned that the ones on the land will wash into the sea," she said.

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Puerto Rico Is Already an Environmental Tragedy. Hurricane Maria Will Make It Even Worse.

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Last week, Puerto Rico was lucky. This week, it's not. The majority of the U.S. territory was spared the worst from Hurricane Irma, the Category 4 storm that devastated the lower Florida Keys and Caribbean islands including St. Martin and Barbuda.

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Hurricane Maria Hits Puerto Rico as Residents Told to Evacuate or 'You're Going to Die'

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Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island Wednesday morning.

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President Trump on Thursday waived shipping restrictions to get fuel and supplies to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico - but aid that's already there hasn't been reaching desperate residents.

"There are plenty of ships and plenty of cargo to come into the island," said Mark Miller, a spokesman for shipping company Crowley, which has 3,000 containers of supplies in the US territory.

"From there, that's where the supply chain breaks down - getting the goods from the port to the people on the island who need them," he told Bloomberg News.

Around 9,500 containers carrying supplies remained stuck at the Port of San Juan on Thursday, while the island's 3.4 million residents faced another day of food, fuel and water shortages, waiting in hours-long lines to buy basic items.

"Really, our biggest challenge has been the logistical assets to try to get some of the food and some of the water to different areas of Puerto Rico," Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told MSNBC.

Many roads on the island remain washed out or blocked by debris, and authorities have had trouble reaching out to truck drivers who can deliver supplies.

"When we say that we don't have truck drivers, we mean that we have not been able to contact them," Rosselló said.

More than a week after Hurricane Maria hit the island as a Category 4 storm, Trump waived the Jones Act - which requires that all goods shipped between US ports be carried by American-owned and -operated ships - for the next 10 days.

"We are strengthening the distribution of supplies with federal collaboration," Rosselló tweeted.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced Thursday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account would receive another $6.7 billion by the end of the week.

And the Pentagon said it was sending Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, a three-star general who served four tours in Iraq, to the island, where the military was trying to better coordinate the distribution of supplies to residents.

Earlier in the day, Sen. Marco Rubio said that only the Defense Department could manage the logistics of getting aid distributed to residents quickly.

"The only people who can restore it, who have the capacity to do so quickly in the short term and then turn it over to the authorities there in Puerto Rico, is the Department of Defense," the Florida Republican told CNN.

"We need someone in charge of that with the know-how of logistics, with the capability to restore logistics and with the authority to make decisions quickly without having to check with 18 agencies."

The Trump administration has been facing criticism over its response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, with some charging that it was slow to react.

"The federal response has been a disaster," said lawmaker José Enrique Meléndez, a member of Rosselló's New Progressive Party. "It's been really slow."

But Trump's advisers pushed back against those accusations Thursday, with acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke saying that she was "very satisfied" with the federal government's response and that "the relief effort is under control."

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said 10,000 federal relief workers were now stationed in Puerto Rico.

"The full weight of the United States government is engaged to ensure that food, water, health care and other lifesaving resources are making it to the people in need," she said.

Of the island's 69 hospitals, 44 are operational, officials said. Forty-four percent of Puerto Ricans remain without drinking water and most of the island is still without power.

Pastor Irving Figueroa of the Wesleyan Church in the northern municipality of Guaynabo said islanders were desperate for food, water and medicine.

"Parents with two or three kids at home, they need water, and they need milk and the basics in order to help their kids," he told The Post. "This is a catastrophic situation."

Figueroa - whose church has been working with World Hope International to distribute supplies such as water filters, tarps and solar chargers - said people have been spending 10 to 11 hours in line just to buy gas.

"There are 500 to 700 people all in line to get water from the places that the government are providing," he explained.

"This is the worst situation in our history. It's like being in a military combat situation."
With Post wires

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Aid sent to Puerto Rico not reaching desperate residents

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President Trump on Thursday waived shipping restrictions to get fuel and supplies to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico - but aid that's already there hasn't been reaching desperate residents. "There are plenty of ships and plenty of cargo to come into the island," said Mark Miller, a spokesman for shipping company Crowley, which has 3,000 containers of supplies in the US territory.

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Good section on development of hurricane

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Good section on development of hurricane

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Puerto Rico is devastated and struggling to recover after Hurricane Maria pummeled the territory Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm. Most of the island is still without power as food and water supplies get low, generators run out of fuel, flights in and out are extremely limited, hospitals are damaged, temporary housing is in shortage, and people struggle to access their bank accounts.

Maria - the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in more than 80 years - destroyed hundreds of homes, knocked out power across the entire island, and triggered heavy flooding.

Puerto Rico is "essentially devastated," Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told the Washington Post Sept. 26. "Complete destruction of the power infrastructure, severe destruction of the housing infrastructure, food and water are needed."

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria hit numerous islands in the Caribbean. Previously a Category 5 with 175 mph winds, Maria weakened to a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph Wednesday, Sept. 20, after barreling through Puerto Rico as a Category 4 with winds up to 155 mph. Maria dissipated within a week off the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Here's what you need to know about the catastrophic storm.

How did Hurricane Maria develop?

Maria formed as a tropical storm Saturday, Sept. 16, in the western Atlantic Ocean.

It became a Category 3 storm Monday, Sept. 18, after doubling in strength in just 24 hours. Then it maintained its rapid growth, becoming a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 175 mph Tuesday, Sept. 19, after making its way through the Leeward Islands.

It smashed into the Caribbean island of Dominica, causing what the prime minister called "mind-boggling" devastation in a region already devastated by Hurricane Irma. Maria is now the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Dominica. Hartley Henry, an adviser to the prime minister, says the country is "in a daze," with no electricity and little to no communications.

The French island of Martinique escaped Hurricane Maria largely unscathed while 40 percent of the French island of Guadeloupe is without power.

Maria then directly hit Puerto Rico as a Category 4 with 155 mph winds, making it the third-strongest storm to make landfall in the U.S. It was even stronger than Hurricane Irma when it roared into the Florida Keys Sept. 10.

Puerto Rico hadn't seen an intense hurricane in quite some time. Before Hurricane Irma, only four other Category 4 storms had tracked within 75 miles of the central part of the island. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was the last to do so up until Irma passed earlier this month.

Maria also hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Turks and Caicos, causing widespread flooding.

Did Hurricane Maria hit the U.S.?

The U.S. mainland spared the wrath of Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Jose, which followed a similar path before fizzling out in the open ocean.

How much damage did Hurricane Maria cause?

Hurricane Maria left at least 45 people dead across the Caribbean, with the majority from the island of Dominica.

Maria has been devastating to Puerto Rico and many smaller Caribbean islands. The storm knocked out power to most of Puerto Rico and destroyed its weather-monitoring systems. After nearly two weeks, airports are open again, but most residents are still without power, and many are at risk of death as food and water supplies run low. Other people who are on oxygen tanks or dialysis treatments are also at risk as generators run out of diesel.

"Months and months and months and months are going to pass before we can recover from this," said Felix Delgado, mayor of the northern coastal city of Catano.

Currently, Puerto Ricans lack basic necessities, including food and clean drinking water, and assessments indicate island could have no electricity for many months. Many residents have no safe housing as structures have been damaged by downed trees and power lines. Hospitals and other public buildings also remain badly damaged and flooded. There is a lack of temporary housing, placing residents at greater risk of disease, such as dengue fever or other mosquito-borne ailments. The two main elements of Puerto Rico's economy, agriculture and tourism, have been devastated by the storm. The island's entire population of 3.1 million people has been affected by Hurricane Maria.

Maria also caused widespread flooding in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

How is World Vision responding?

World Vision has initiated its response on the ground in Puerto Rico, supported by a global rapid response team. Due to the scale of the need in Puerto Rico, World Vision deployed two teams of four to six people to Puerto Rico to establish World Vision's presence and connect with local partners and networks, such as Urban Strategies and the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.

Working with local partners strengthens our program implementation in Puerto Rico. On Monday Oct. 2, t he initial response team began conducting assessments and providing local partners with support logistics near San Juan and in a hard-hit area on the central-eastern side of the island to make way for distributions, cash programming, and program management. The initial response will include distributing food, clean-up kids, and hygiene kits, as well establishing Child-Friendly Spaces and water, sanitation, and hygiene work.

"The biggest operational challenge is lack of electricity, limited cell phone coverage, and long lines for gas," said Mike Weickert a member of World Vision's Global Rapid Response Team, who arrived in Puerto Rico Friday, Sept. 29.

World Vision staff in the Dominican Republic are working to help more than 9,700 people that are displaced from their homes, including nearly 3,100 children, in the Miches and Santa Cruz El Seibo areas. Most have lost everything due to flooding in the wake of Maria. World Vision has been distributing hygiene kits and food kits. The main needs are the lack of clean water, hygiene and cleaning products, mattresses, and school supplies and uniforms so children can return to school. World Vision is coordinating with community leaders and authorities to prevent abuses of children in the emergency area as well.

How can I help victims of Hurricane Maria?

Consider helping us continue the flow of emergency supplies by donating to World Vision's Hurricane Maria disaster relief fund.

Join us in praying for people as people begin to recover: Almighty Father, we ask for Your mercy on those suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Protect people. Guide aid workers and emergency responders as they work to help those in need.

Contributor: Heather Klinger, World Vision staff.

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Hurricane Maria: Facts, FAQs, and how to help | World Vision

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Puerto Rico is devastated and struggling to recover after Hurricane Maria pummeled the territory Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm. Most of the island is still without power as food and water supplies get low, generators run out of fuel, flights in and out are extremely limited, hospitals are damaged, temporary housing is in shortage, and people struggle to access their bank accounts.

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Hurricane Maria | World news | The Guardian

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Trump hints at ending aid as Puerto Ricans forced to drink polluted water

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As Donald Trump says he will visit the US territory, here are four ways Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc.

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When Hurricane Irma was advancing toward Florida in early September, weather officials were looking at a very scary scenario: an extremely powerful Category 4 or 5 storm hitting with 150 mph winds, flooding rains, and up to 15 feet of storm surge for coastal cities like Miami and Tampa.

But there's always some unpredictability about a hurricane's path, and Florida got lucky: The worst-case scenario didn't happen, due to small changes in Irma's path.

Puerto Rico had no such luck with Hurricane Maria. On Thursday, it seemed that forecasters' dire scenario played out with the storm's direct hit of the island, home to 3.4 million US citizens. When it made landfall, Maria took a course that bisected the island from the Southeast to the Northwest. "It was as if a 50- to 60-mile-wide tornado raged across Puerto Rico, like a buzz saw," Jeff Weber, a meteorologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says. "It's almost as strong as a hurricane can get in a direct hit."

By the record books, it was the fifth-strongest storm ever to hit the US. At least six people died in the storm in Puerto Rico, the New York Times reports. And the repercussions are ongoing. On Friday, the National Weather Service issued a dire warning about the Guajataca Dam in the northwestern corner of the island, which is reported to have broken, threatening downstream areas with deadly floods. All homes in the area are being evacuated.

This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. Busses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can #prwx
- NWS San Juan (@NWSSanJuan) September 22, 2017

Communications to and from Puerto Rico are strained (cell service has been all but wiped out on the island; even the governor couldn't get through to his parents as of Thursday), but the situation on the ground sounds very grim. There is no electricity on the entire island - and it could remain that way for months. Whole communities are likely destroyed. It's probable the island saw near-record levels of rain and flooding.

"We're talking here about major devastation," Carlos Mercader, a spokesperson for the Puerto Rican government, told PBS NewsHour Wednesday. "And when we say major devastation, that means that in terms of infrastructure, we have full communities that 80 or 90 percent of the homes are a complete disaster. They are totally lost."

Maria is a catastrophe that will scar Puerto Rico for months and years. Here, Weber and Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, explain why it got so bad.

1) Maria made a direct hit near highly populated areas. That's always bad.

There have been bigger storms than Maria. Its hurricane force winds extended about 50 or 60 miles out from its center, whereas Irma's extended around 80. But here, size didn't matter.

Maria charted a course directly over Puerto Rico, passing around 25 miles away from San Juan, the capital, which is home to around 400,000 people. No nation or territory could suffer such a direct hit without some damage.

This is comparable to a medium-size tornado passing through an entire country. But usually tornadoes don't also come with a massive amount of rain.

Maria was the strongest storm to hit the island in 80 years. And even though the threat exists every year, many homes in Puerto Rico aren't built with hurricanes in mind. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told reporters that wooden, flood-prone homes on the island "have no chance."

2) Maria continues to drench Puerto Rico with record rainfall

Parts of Puerto Rico saw more than 30 inches of rain during the storm. That amount of extreme rain turns tiny streams into gushing floods. It's smaller than, but comparable to, the huge amounts of rain we saw with Hurricane Harvey in Houston (some areas in the city got close to 50 inches).

That type of rain brings "catastrophic" floods, the National Weather Service reports. And it's expected to continue through Friday.

"Flash flood emergencies continue in portions of Puerto Rico due to persistent heavy rainfall from Maria's trailing rainbands," the National Hurricane Center reported Thursday, well after Maria's eye had moved on from the island. "Catastrophic flooding is occurring on the island, especially in areas of mountainous terrain, and everyone in Puerto Rico should continue to follow advice from local officials to avoid these life-threatening flooding conditions."

Making things worse: "Maria is moving away very slowly," Weber says, at around 9 mph. Some other hurricanes move faster, at around 15 mph. Slower speeds mean more rain can be dumped over an area. (This is what happened with Harvey, which crawled over Texas at around 3 mph.)

In *less than one day* parts of Puerto Rico have received 24-36"+ of rain.
For context: Houston had 32" in *three days* during Harvey. Wow. https://t.co/5dWnxtEPTp
- Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) September 21, 2017

The National Hurricane Center's Stewart also mentions that many of the island's weather stations were knocked offline during the storm. So the absolute figures on rainfall and wind speeds are not yet known - and could be even higher than what we already know - and they won't be known until crews from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration visit these locations.

"Even though the power is out and the [weather stations] weren't operating in real time, many of these instruments are still recording the data, and we have to go in, retrieve the data, and play it back," Stewart says.

Also the only two Doppler radar stations on the island are currently offline due to the storm, Stewart says. Doppler radar helps meteorologists make local, community-by-community forecasts. He says it's unclear if the Doppler radar stations have themselves been damaged or if it was just communications equipment that got toppled over.

Either way, it's still too early for NOAA crews to go out and inspect, he says.

3) The geography of the island exacerbates wind, rain, and flooding

Puerto Rico is a mountainous island. And to some extent, its highlands helped sap some overall strength from Maria. When it emerged out of the island, Maria downgraded to a Category 2. But the mountains might have also caused the storm to wring out more water and intensify winds while it was traversing the island.

"Watching the eye go over Puerto Rico, it was very unusual, unlike anything I've ever seen before," Weber says. Usually, the eye takes a straight-line course through an island. But when the eye came into contact with the mountains, it bounced around like a pinball. "That could have exacerbated the damage, could have damaged a wider area with that eye wall dancing around like that," he says.

Weber points out that the valleys could have acted like channels for wind, causing the speeds to accelerate as the storm passed through them.

The mountains also exacerbate the rain and flooding. "When you have a circulation of a tropical cyclone, wind and moist air are lifted up over the mountains," says Stewart. Like a washcloth through a wringer, the mountains squeeze more rain of the system - "at least on the order of 10 to 30 percent compared to moving over flat terrain," he says.

Then the mountainous terrain creates the problem of water pooling from the heavy rainfall. "Any small streams [and] valley areas will become flooded very quickly because the water has no place to go," Stewart says.

Some areas of Puerto Rico saw around 9 feet of storm surge, the coastal flooding that is often the most deadly component of a hurricane. But here, Puerto Rico was slightly lucky. Because of its mountainous geography, the surge probably didn't get more than a few hundred feet inland in many locations.

4) Puerto Rico was just beginning to heal from Hurricane Irma. And its economy was already sagging.

Before Maria hit, around 60,000 people on the island were still without power from Irma. And any power outage there is a serious issue, as Vox's Alexia Fernandez Campbell explains, because the government is broke. Its infrastructure is aging and in disrepair on a good day. And it can't borrow money to fix it. Campbell explains:

It all comes down to money, and the government of Puerto Rico doesn't have it. The island, which is a US territory, filed for bankruptcy-like protection earlier this summer, and is in the process of restructuring its debt. Now the public utility company is in a severe state of financial distress, unable to modernize its system and facing a shortage of high-skilled workers. Even FEMA relief money that Congress will likely authorize will be of limited help in such an environment.

Remember: We still have more than a month left of hurricane season. More storms are likely.

We've now seen four extremely strong storms in quick succession - Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Maria. But both Weber and Stewart agree it's too soon to call this hurricane season abnormal. "This is still very much in line with what we saw in 2005," Weber says, referring to the year Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans.

But if these strong Category 4 and 5s continue into October, he says alarm bells will start ringing. (For more on what we know about climate change and this year's hurricanes, read Dave Roberts's piece at Vox.)

One explanation for why the season is so active is that all of the components that make hurricanes are near ideal conditions: The ocean waters are at their warmest they get all year (and are somewhat hotter than usual). And there's very little wind shear (upper-level winds that can blow the tops off storms.)

One bit of good news: Huge storms like Irma and Maria churn up the oceans beneath them and actually cool them down a bit. So if another storm approaches Puerto Rico soon, it will have less energy to feed on.

But "conditions are still very prime - we will see more tropical storms," Weber predicts.

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Why Hurricane Maria is such a nightmare for Puerto Rico

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When Hurricane Irma was advancing toward Florida in early September, weather officials were looking at a very scary scenario: an extremely powerful Category 4 or 5 storm hitting with 150 mph winds, flooding rains, and up to 15 feet of storm surge for coastal cities like Miami and Tampa.