CNN
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Tropical Storm Ernesto approaches Puerto Rico as a dangerous hurricane early Wednesday morning, unleashing flooding rains and strong winds that could deal a major blow to the island’s fragile power infrastructure.
Ernesto, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph as of 2 a.m. Wednesday — just 4 mph short of hurricane strength — the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Its center was about 40 miles north of San Juan early Wednesday after passing the Virgin Islands on Tuesday.
While its center will not cross Puerto Rico — instead heading northeast — the storm could still dump 8 to 10 inches of rain on the island, triggering dangerous flash flooding and mudslides, the hurricane center said. Heavy rainfall is expected across the southeastern part of the island.
Ernesto will move into the open Atlantic later Wednesday, but in the meantime its power is still being felt in the Caribbean.
Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings are in effect for the Virgin Islands and the smaller Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra. A flood warning was in effect Wednesday morning for the US Virgin Islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. And he is under a tropical storm warning for the entire island of Puerto Rico.
Flash flood warnings remain in place for Vieques and Culebra until 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, as “flooding is ongoing or expected to begin soon,” the National Weather Service said.
Along the east coast of Puerto Rico, storm surge could raise water levels up to 3 feet and cause life-threatening swells and danger to anyone at sea.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi mobilized the National Guard and urged people to shelter in their homes from Tuesday evening. Government schools are closed across the country About 80 accommodations are opened in anticipation of Ernesto.
Residents were warned to be prepared for widespread power outages as the island’s weak and outdated power grid is still being repaired after being crippled by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Power outages are a familiar frustration among Puerto Ricans, many of whom have found slow efforts to modernize a power grid more vulnerable to natural disasters painful.
LUMA Energy, a private company that operates electricity transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico, said. mobilized Across the islands to respond to outages. LUMA president Juan Saga urged people to report blackouts, saying the app doesn’t know about all of them.
“Puerto Rico’s electricity system is not modernized enough to detect power outages,” Saga said Tuesday. AP reports.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency can help with immediate storm response to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, including search and rescue operations and generator supplies, agency spokeswoman Jacqueline Rothenberg told CNN.
“The people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are no strangers to hurricanes,” Rothenberg said. “They know how to prepare, but I know there are also a lot of travelers — people who go to the islands for fun in the summer.”
With the possibility of power outages, people should keep non-perishable food on hand, charge electronic devices and keep medicines that require refrigeration cold.
“It’s really important that people don’t get complacent, that they take the storm seriously and that they prepare for the impact,” Rothenberg said.
Ernesto will gradually curve northward on Wednesday, bringing it into the Caribbean and open Atlantic, and is expected to strengthen as it nears Bermuda by Friday.
Ernesto could become a powerful hurricane by the end of the week as it approaches Bermuda. It is too early to know how close Ernesto will come to Bermuda and how much rain and wind it will bring.
How strong Ernesto becomes will depend heavily on how warm ocean waters become and how powerful the upper-level winds that disrupt the storm in the region become. Ernesto is likely to become a major hurricane – Category 3 or higher – this weekend.
Ernesto’s track is still subject to change depending on a number of factors, including its northward pull. A later turn means the storm will affect areas as far west as Hispaniola or the southern Bahamas.
Ernesto will have widespread impacts later this week and into this weekend with a track somewhere in the open Atlantic.
The storm will disrupt oceans hundreds of miles away and create dangerous currents along the U.S. East Coast, the Bahamas and the Caribbean early next week.
CNN meteorologist Mary Gilbert and CNN’s Ella Nielsen contributed to this report.
