SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Ernesto strengthened to a Category 2 storm Thursday night as it barreled toward Bermuda, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without power or water. Extreme heat engulfed the US territory, raising concerns about people’s health.
A A hurricane warning was in effect for BermudaErnesto is expected to pass near or over the island on Saturday.
The storm was centered about 410 miles (660 kilometers) south-southwest of Bermuda late Thursday. Its maximum sustained winds reached 100 mph (155 kph), and the storm moved north-northeast at 14 mph (22 kph) over open water.
“I cannot stress enough how important it is for every resident to use this time to prepare. We have seen in the past the devastating consequences of complacency,” said National Security Minister Michael Weeks.
Ernesto is forecast to reach Category 3 strength on Friday and then weaken as it nears Bermuda, where it could drop 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of rain, with up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) in isolated areas.
“All guidance shows this system as a major hurricane near Bermuda,” the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Ernesto was expected to pass near or east of Atlantic Canada on Monday.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s rotating storm is creating southerly winds in Puerto Rico that have a warming effect in contrast to the usual cooler trade winds from the east.
“We know a lot of people don’t have power,” said Ernesto Morales with the National Weather Service, who warned of extreme heat and urged people to stay hydrated.
More than 290,000 of 1.4 million customers were in the dark Thursday evening, and Ernesto remained in the dark for more than a day late Tuesday before it crossed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm and strengthened into a hurricane. A peak of 735,000 customers were without power Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of people were left without water as many questioned widespread power outages given that Ernesto was only a tropical storm when it passed the island.
“I didn’t sleep at all,” said Ramon Mercedes Paredes, a 41-year-old construction worker who planned to sleep outside Thursday night to beat the heat. “I couldn’t even shower.”
In a small park in the San Juan capital’s Saunders neighborhood, 32-year-old construction worker Alexander Reyna sipped a bright red sports drink offered by friends as roosters crowed above a room of dominoes.
With no water or power, he plans to spend the day in the park lamenting the lack of breeze, a small bead of sweat already forming on his forehead: “I have to come here because I can’t stay at home.”
The situation worries many who lived through Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm that hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 and was blamed for at least 2,975 deaths in its severe effects. And that The island’s power grid was destroyed and is still being rebuilt.
The National Weather Service warned of “dangerously hot and humid conditions” on Thursday.
Faustino Peguero, 50, said he worries about his wife, who has fibromyalgia, heart failure and other health conditions and needs electricity. He has a small generator at home, but he’s run out of gasoline and can’t buy more because he can’t find work.
“It’s chaos,” he said.
Officials said they don’t know when power will be fully restored amid growing health concerns for many in Puerto Rico, who cannot afford generators or solar panels on an island of 3.2 million people with a poverty rate of more than 40%.
Crews flew 540 miles (870 kilometers) across Puerto Rico and identified 400 power line faults, 150 of which have already been fixed, said Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy. Rico. The rest of the failures will take longer to fix because they involve fallen trees, he said.
“We don’t see anything catastrophic,” he said.
When pressed for an estimate of when power would be restored, Alejandro Gonzalez, Luma’s director of operations, declined to say.
“It would be irresponsible to give an exact date,” he said.
Power outages left at least 250,000 customers without water across Puerto Rico, down from a maximum of 350,000. Among them was 65-year-old Gisela Perez, who started sweating as she cooked sweet plantains, pork, chicken and spaghetti at a street-side restaurant. After his shift, he planned to buy gallons of water because he was especially concerned about his two small dogs, Mini and Lazy.
“They can’t go without it,” he said. “They come first.”
