Hurricane Ernesto brings heavy rain and wind as it passes Puerto Rico
Ernesto intensified from a tropical storm to a hurricane, bringing damaging winds and heavy rains as it passed north of Puerto Rico.
Ernesto intensified into a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday as it raged north of Puerto Rico, unleashing torrential rains and damaging winds that prompted flash flood warnings and caused power outages across half the island.
At 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Ernesto was located 225 miles northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, with sustained winds of 75 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm raged throughout the morning in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, quickly dumping several inches of rain across the territory, prompting National Weather Service meteorologists in San Juan to warn of “life-threatening flash flooding.” Overall, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands could see up to 6 inches of rain, while totals in southeastern Puerto Rico could rise to 8 to 10 inches.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico and called on the federal government to help with local relief efforts. Ahead of the storm, authorities in Puerto Rico closed government offices, shuttered schools, activated the National Guard and opened hundreds of shelters.
Meteorologists expect Ernesto to move northward away from Puerto Rico by Wednesday and drift along the western Atlantic toward Bermuda for several days – it was still 800 miles away on Wednesday afternoon – before eventually developing into a major hurricane and remaining well east of the U.S. continental US.
Tropical Storm Ernesto: Track the storm’s path as it heads toward Puerto Rico
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Over 730,000 power outages reported in Puerto Rico
More than 730,000 electricity customers in Puerto Rico – almost exactly half of all customers in that U.S. territory – were without power after Ernesto brought tropical storm gusts and heavy rains to the island of more than three million U.S. residents.
Caguas, a major city in east-central Puerto Rico, had the most power outages, with 167,000 as of 2:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to the website of Luma Energy, the operator of Puerto Rico’s power grid. Luma, which serves 1.47 million customers, said 49.5% of them were without power at the time.
The second highest number of power outages, more than 156,000 homes and businesses, was recorded in Mayaguez, a large city on Puerto Rico’s west coast, Luma said. In the capital, San Juan, there were 43,000 outages, or 17% of customers without service. That is by far the lowest number of the seven regions reported by Luma. In four regions, the figure was about 70%.
Luma said Tuesday that it has coordinated with emergency responders across Puerto Rico to respond to power outages. Power outages have been a regular occurrence on the island since Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico’s power grid in 2017.
Ernesto causes power outages in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Two of the three U.S. Virgin Islands – St. John and St. Croix – were completely in the dark on Wednesday as authorities worked to restore supplies after Ernesto.
Daryl Jaschen, director of the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency, said in a press conference Wednesday that in addition to the outages, six cell towers across the territory had also gone offline.
U.S. Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr. said at the same press conference that “the area is in good condition” but urged residents and tourists not to venture outdoors as rains continued to lash the islands.
“There are a lot of branches lying on the road, a lot of water coming down from the hills on all three islands – and occasional flooding occurs,” he said.
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Destructive wind gusts and flooding in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
As Ernesto hit Puerto Rico early Wednesday morning, authorities issued flash flood warnings and the National Hurricane Center reported destructive wind gusts.
By 7 a.m., between 2 and 6 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Puerto Rico, and another 2 to 3 inches were forecast. “Flash flooding is underway or expected shortly,” the weather service in San Juan said.
As rainfall increases, “the level of the Rio Grande de Loiza and its tributaries continues to rise and the risk of flooding continues to increase,” the weather service said, adding that rivers were likely to overflow their banks.
Meanwhile, St. John and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands received between 3 and 5 inches of rainfall through Wednesday morning, prompting the weather service to warn of “life-threatening flash flooding in streams and rivers, in urban areas, on highways, roads and underpasses.”
According to the National Weather Service in San Juan, a wind gust of 86 miles per hour was measured on Culebra, a small island off the east coast that belongs to Puerto Rico. A team from the National Weather Service in Ceiba in northeastern Puerto Rico recorded a gust of 74 miles per hour. Wind speeds of up to 75 miles per hour were measured in the Virgin Islands, the weather service said.
Bermuda is stockpiling supplies like in COVID times
In Bermuda, Jessica Burns said she woke up to torrential rain Wednesday morning and is preparing for much worse this weekend when Hurricane Ernesto could arrive as a Category 2 storm, according to the Bermuda Weather Service.
Burns, 29, said she was born and raised on the island, but this will be her first summer at the helm of the family’s vacation rental business after her mother passed away in November 2023.
Burns, neighbors and staff trimmed loose branches and removed coconuts from the trees “to make sure there was no danger of them coming loose and causing damage,” she said.
Burns said she has also stocked up on food, batteries and water. “We’re all going to the supermarket and stocking up on supplies like we did during COVID,” she said.
Some vacationers checked out of Burns’ Southern Views Property Rentals early this week because they wanted to avoid Ernesto. Other guests “hid” with staff and were given a free extra night to stay safe and dry, she said.
− Claire Thornton
Will Ernesto impact the continental United States?
While Ernesto is not expected to make landfall in the United States, authorities warned of potentially dangerous conditions on beaches along the American Atlantic coast, including rip currents and heavy surf, as the storm approaches Bermuda.
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday warned recreational sailors, fishermen, beachgoers and water sports enthusiasts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico not to enter the water “due to deteriorating sea conditions and dangerous surf rip currents associated with Tropical Storm Ernesto.”
Meteorologists said strong waves would hit North Carolina beaches starting Friday and advised beachgoers to be aware of the risks and dangers.
“The storm could be hundreds of miles out to sea and the weather could look great on beaches along Florida, the Carolinas and even into New England, but everyone should be aware of the risks and dangers on the beaches,” said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather’s senior hurricane forecaster. “We expect the threat of rip currents along the U.S. Atlantic coast to begin in the southeast later this week and intensify and spread northward over the weekend.”
Ernesto is the fifth named storm of the 2024 hurricane season
In a revised forecast released earlier this month, the federal government predicted an “extremely active” Atlantic hurricane season that could be among the strongest on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 17 to 24 named storms, of which about 8 to 13 would reach hurricane strength, compared to an average of 14 named storms and seven hurricanes.
NOAA chief Rick Spinrad said in a statement that the season had started “early and fierce,” with Hurricane Beryl being the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. He added that the agency’s update means the peak of hurricane season, which typically includes the strongest storms and hurricanes, is near.
Overall, NOAA puts the probability of an above-average hurricane season at 90 percent, one of the highest probabilities ever given by the agency, Matthew Rosencrans, the agency’s lead seasonal hurricane forecaster, told USA TODAY.
Ernesto follows the deadly Hurricane Debby
Ernesto appeared in the Atlantic Ocean as residents and authorities in the eastern United States were still recovering from the effects of former Tropical Storm Debby.
Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region last week as a Category 1 hurricane before the storm’s remnants caused widespread flooding along the East Coast, inundating entire neighborhoods as authorities conducted water rescues and evacuations. At least eight people were killed by the storm.
In July, Hurricane Beryl devastated the Caribbean as a major hurricane before hitting Texas, causing massive power outages that resulted in several fatal heat stroke cases. Beryl is linked to more than 20 deaths in the United States and the Caribbean.
Contributors: Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; CA Bridges, Palm Beach Post
