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| Photo Credit: AP. |
SAN SALVADOR, Puerto Rico (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday the full force of the federal government is ready to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastation of Hurricane Fiona, while Bermuda and Canada’s Atlantic provinces prepared for a major blast from the Category 4 storm.
Speaking at
a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in New York,
Biden said, “We’re all in this together.”
Biden noted
that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground in
Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused an island-wide blackout.
More than
60% of power customers remained without energy on Thursday, and a third of
customers were without water — and local officials admitted they could not say
when service would be fully restored.
Biden said
his message to the people of Puerto Rico who are still hurting from Hurricane
Maria five years ago is: “We’re with you. We’re not going to walk away.”
That seemed
to draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump, who was widely accused
of an inadequate response to Maria, which left some Puerto Ricans without power
for 11 months.
The
hurricane was still at Category 4 force late Thursday as it was making a close
pass to Bermuda, where authorities opened shelters and announced schools and offices
would be closed Friday.
“It’s going
to be a storm that everyone remembers when it is all said and done,” said Bob
Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane
Centre.
Hundreds of
people in Puerto Rico remained cut off by road four days after the hurricane
ripped into the U.S. territory, and frustration was mounting for people like
Nancy Galarza, who tried to signal for help from work crews she spotted in the
distance.
“Everyone
goes over there,” she said pointing toward crews at the bottom of the mountain
who were helping others also cut off by the storm. “No one comes here to see
us. I am worried for all the elderly people in this community.”
At least
five landslides cover the narrow road to her community in the steep mountains
around the northern town of Caguas. The only way to reach the settlement is to
climb over thick mounds of mud, rock and debris left by Fiona, whose
floodwaters shook the the foundations of nearby homes with earthquake-like
force.
“The rocks
sounded like thunder,” recalled Vanessa Flores, a 47-year-old school janitor.
“I’ve never in my life heard that. It was horrible.”
At least one
elderly woman who relies on oxygen was evacuated on Thursday by city officials
who were working under a pelting rain to clear paths to the San Salvador
community.
Ramiro
Figueroa, 63, said his bedridden 97-year-old bedridden father refused to leave
home despite insistence from rescue crews. Their road was blocked by mud,
rocks, trees and his sister’s pickup, which was washed down the hill during the
storm.
National
Guard troops and others brought water, cereal, canned peaches and two bottles
of apple juice.
“That has
helped me enormously,” Figueroa said as he scanned the devastated landscape,
where a river had changed its course and tore up the community.
At least
eight of 11 communities in Caguas are completely isolated, said Luis González,
municipal inspector of recovery and reconstruction. It’s one of at least six
municipalities where crews have yet to reach some areas. People there often
depend on help from neighbors, as they did following Hurricane Maria, a
Category 4 storm in 2017 that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Miguel
Veguilla said that in Maria’s aftermath he used picks and shovels to clear
debris. But Fiona was different, unleashing huge landslides.
“I cannot
throw those rocks over my shoulder,” he said.
Like
hundreds of thousands in Puerto Rico, Veguilla has no water or electricity
service, but said there is a natural water source nearby.
Danciel
Rivera, 31, arrived in rural Caguas with a church group and tried to bring a
little cheer by dressing as a clown.
“That’s very
important in these moments,” he said, noting that people had never fully
recovered from Hurricane Maria. “A lot of PTSD has reared its head these days.”
His huge
clown shoes squelched through the mud as he greeted people, whose faces lit up
as they smiled at him.
Puerto
Rico’s government said some 62% of 1.47 million customers remained without
power Thursday. A third of customers, or more than 400,000, did not yet have
water service.
“Too many
homes and businesses are still without power” Biden said in New York, adding
that additional utility crews were set to travel to the island to help restore
power in the coming days.
The
executive director of Puerto Rico’s Electric Energy Authority, Josué Colón,
told a news conference that areas less affected by Fiona should have
electricity by Friday morning. But officials declined to say when power would
be restored to the hardest-hit places and said they were working first to get
energy to hospitals and other key infrastructure.
Neither
local nor federal government officials had provided an overall estimate of
damage from the storm, which dropped up to 30 inches of rain in some areas.
The U.S.
center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) late
Thursday. It was centered about 195 miles (315 kilometers) west of Bermuda,
heading north-northeast at 21 mph (33 kph).
Hurricane-force
winds extended outward up to 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the center and
tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 275 miles (445 kilometers).
Bermuda
Premier David Burt sent a tweet urging residents to “take care of yourself and
your family. Let’s all remember to check on as well as look out for your
seniors, family and neighbors. Stay safe.”
The Canadian
Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch extensive coastal expanses of Nova
Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
Hurricanes
in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder
waters, they lose their main source of energy. and become extratropical. Those
cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, but now have a cold instead
of a warm core and no visible eye. Their shape can be different too. They lose
their symmetric form and can more resemble a comma.
Fiona so far
has been blamed for at least five deaths — two in Puerto Rico, two in the
Dominican Republic and one in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe.
Fiona also
hit the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday, but officials there reported
relatively light damage and no deaths.
Associated
Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington, Seth Borenstein in New York, Rob
Gillies in Toronto and Maricarmen Rivera Sánchez in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
contributed to this report.