TS Ernesto, now a hurricane, hit northeastern & central PR the hardest; roads closed, several towns grapple with heavy flooding
By John McPhaul
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said in a press conference Wednesday that he asked LUMA Energy President & CEO Juan Saca to act swiftly to restore service to the more than 728,000 electricity customers deprived of power with the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto.
“I have asked the president of LUMA directly to restore the service as soon as possible,” the governor said at a press conference. “Obviously the crews are on the street. There is a difference between when a line has fallen and when what has happened is that vegetation has touched a line and impacted the service and the system was protected. But that has to be determined by the personnel on the street. I repeat, they should act with a sense of urgency, because we certainly want the number of subscribers without service to go down as soon as possible, in the next few hours. But obviously it is very difficult. Right now they are not saying when we will have 100 percent of subscribers with service, because right now they are on the street seeing what the damage was and taking action on the matter.”
LUMA Energy’s director of operations, Alejandro González, said the brigades were patrolling the transmission lines on the ground, but until they have the approval of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to carry out the aerial inspection, an exact time could not be established to restore electrical service in its entirety.
Saca reiterated that service would be restored as soon as possible.
Daniel Hernández, the vice president of operations for Genera PR, the private operator of the island’s power plants, said meanwhile that no damage to the generators had been reported.
“Well, what happened during the night when we were working continuously is that the lines, as the transmission lines were disconnected, in that same way the generation capacity was reduced to always maintain the demand with the generation capacity,” Hernández said. “That is the way it is done, coordinated with the LUMA group, so there is no major damage. The base generation plants, each and every one of them are available, Palo Seco, San Juan, we have Aguirre, Costa Sur, Mayagüez, Cambalache, including Vieques and Culebra, all are available to serve customers. As soon as LUMA determines that there is no damage to the lines, which is the first step they take, which is to do a damage assessment, if they can be energized safely, then they will call us to provide service to customers, as LUMA determines.”
Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane as it moved away from Puerto Rico on its way to Bermuda early Wednesday morning, leaving behind locally heavy flooding and the aforementioned 728,000-plus LUMA customers without electricity.
Flash flood warnings were in effect for numerous municipalities: Adjuntas, Ciales, Corozal, Jayuya, Morovis, Orocovis, Utuado, Villalba, Dorado, Naranjito, Toa Alta and Toa Baja until 4 p.m. Wednesday; Guayama, Cayey, Coamo, Río Grande, San Lorenzo and Juncos until 3 p.m.; and Bayamón, Guaynabo, Cataño, Ponce, Peñuelas, Guayanilla, Fajardo, Luquillo and Humacao until noon.
In addition, flash flood warnings were in effect for Vieques, Culebra, Aguas Buenas, Comerio, Barranquitas, Carolina, Caguas and Trujillo Alto through most of the morning Wednesday.
In Vega Alta, an 82-year-old man was rescued after being swept away by floodwaters, and in Manatí a married couple was rescued from rising water.
Numerous roads were closed either by flooding or debris including:
* In the Humacao police area, several roads were reported closed due to inclement weather during the morning hours Wednesday.
* PR-31 in the Rio Blanco neighborhood, in Naguabo’s Pitina sector, was closed due to flooding.
* The lanes heading from Humacao to Naguabo on highway PR-53 were blocked by several trees.
* Highway PR-759 near the Palo Seco neighborhood of Maunabo was closed due to flooding.
* Several roads in the Arecibo area were also closed by fallen trees.
* Landslides closed roads in San Sebastián.
At mid-morning on Wednesday, LUMA Energy reported 168,097 customers without electricity in the Caguas region, followed by Ponce with 122,552 and Carolina with 115,849. San Juan had 58,105 without service.
In other regions, Bayamón had 55,081 customers without electricity, while Mayagüez and Arecibo reported 23,079 and 32,733 customers without service, respectively.
“LUMA personnel continue to actively monitor service interruptions caused by Tropical Storm Ernesto that continues to impact the electrical system,” a company spokesperson said in a written statement. “As part of our Emergency Response Plan, we will conduct field inspections as soon as it is safe for our teams to go into the field to identify damage and begin repairs. As dictated by our plan, our priority is to restore service to critical loads including hospitals, water and sewer facilities and other essential services in coordination with municipalities and other state agencies. We urge our customers to stay away from power lines and to report any electrical emergencies by calling 1-844-888-5862.”
The Bayamón Command Center reported Wednesday morning that Toa Baja Emergency Management staff had announced that four floodgates at La Plata dam had been opened. Citizens were therefore advised to evacuate the area of the town and neighborhood of San José in the aforementioned municipality due to the threat of resultant flooding.
There were also warnings about possible flooding of the La Plata River, which could worsen the situation in Toa Baja and surrounding areas.
As an additional precaution, highway PR-2 in Toa Baja in the direction of the Adriel Toyota dealership in Dorado was ordered closed.
At Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Carolina, air operations resumed Wednesday morning after the completion of an inspection and recertification process, said Jorge Hernández, president of Aerostar, the airport operator. The first flight to take off was at 10:15 a.m. bound for Orlando, Florida on JetBlue, and other flights were gradually added throughout the day.
Hernández warned that although operations had resumed, additional delays and cancellations were likely to be experienced throughout the day as airlines worked to normalize their schedules. Aerostar reported the cancellation of 80 flights Wednesday morning, adding to the 65 canceled the previous day.
“The reactivation of flights is a complex process that depends on multiple factors and individual decisions of each airline,” Hernández noted. “It is crucial that passengers stay in direct contact with their airlines to confirm the status of their flight before arriving at the airport. We recommend subscribing to push notifications via email, mobile apps and airline websites to receive accurate updates and, if necessary, reschedule your flight.”
Comentarios