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Maria Causes Chaos

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21 September 2017

By Alex Khalil

Puerto Rico is without power, officials have claimed after Hurricane Maria knocked out the US territory’s power with strong winds and flooding. Residents have endured a day of incredibly strong winds and extremely hazardous flooding. Maria was a category 4 storm and was the third to batter the Caribbean in just a few weeks.

People have shared videos and images of the devastation on Twitter.

Homes built after 2011, when the island introduced new construction codes, were said to survive the winds, however, the flood-prone areas had no chance, said Ricardo Rossello, Puerto Rico’s governor. He had also issued a curfew, since Saturday, of 6 pm to 6 am, urging people to find safe places to wait out the storm. Emergency staff, reporters and health workers were exempt from the curfew.

Maria is now a category 3 storm, with its winds reaching up to 115mph and is still thrashing the Dominican Republic, moving north, toward the Turks and Caicos later today. It has previously hit Dominica, Guadeloupe and the US territory of St Croix, which Donald Trump has declared a major disaster.

If he looked in the mirror he’d see something similar.

https://twitter.com/PuertoRicoPUR/status/910837819299508225

Flooding has affected the capital San Juan and there are flash flood warnings in place in central Puerto Rico. Power could be out for months some reports have claimed and at least seven people have lost their lives to the storm.

This is the first category 4 storm to hit Puerto Rico since 1932.

 

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