Puerto Rico governor: Power could be out for months [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Puerto Rico governor: Power could be out for months

Global September 21, 2017

(CNN)Puerto Rico's energy grid took such a severe blow from deadly Hurricane Maria that restoring power to everyone may take months, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told CNN on Wednesday night.

The entire system is down, the governor said. No one on the island has power from utilities.

Puerto Rico, which has been through a long recession and is deeply in debt, has a power grid that is "a little bit old, mishandled and weak," Rosselló told "Anderson Cooper 360˚."

"It depends on the damage to the infrastructure," he said. "I'm afraid it's probably going to be severe. If it is ... we're looking at months as opposed to weeks or days."

The impact of the storm on the island territory won't be realized until officials can do a flyover and see what remains.

Rosselló said officials think some power stations are not badly damaged, but the distribution system is ruined. If transmission lines are in better shape than thought, power outages might be fixed sooner, the governor said.

Rosselló told CNN that at least one person died in the storm when a board was ripped from the house it had been nailed to by the wind and hit a man. The governor said the number of casualties in some areas is unknown because it is hard to communicate.

"We still don't have a lot of information," he said. "We're virtually disconnected in terms of communications with the southeast part of the island."

The storm has ravaged the Caribbean over the past few days, wreaking devastation on Dominica and the Virgin Islands before slamming into Puerto Rico.

And the threat is not yet over. A hurricane warning is in effect for the Turks and Caicos, the southeastern Bahamas and parts of the Dominican Republic, where strong winds are expected to hit Wednesday night, forecasters said.

Dominica: 14 dead; looting and food, water shortages

On the island of Dominica, which took the full force of Maria before the storm passed on to the US territory, government spokesman Charles Jong told CNN that 14 people had died.

He added that Maria was the "most horrifying experience" he has faced, despite seeing out many other hurricanes. He said he is out of power, food and water, and that people in Dominica have "gone into survival mode." He added that there is widespread looting on the island.

The devastation on Dominica is immense, a CNN crew flying over the island reported. Hundreds of homes have been visibly flattened or damaged. Many had roofs torn off.

The landscape has been stripped bare. Thousands of trees have been snapped at their base and those still standing are devoid of leaves. Dominica was a lush green landscape, including rainforests, but now is brown and lifeless.

Storm has moved toward the Dominican Republic

Now that Maria has moved past Puerto Rico, a US territory with 3.3 million people, search and rescue teams are taking to the country's darkened streets.

The devastating winds had died down to a whisper late Wednesday and the flooding rains were just a drizzle, but getting around was difficult due to widespread damage and no electricity except from generators.

The storm caused widespread flooding and ripped trees out of the ground. More than 10,000 remained in shelters Wednesday night.

"This is total devastation," said Carlos Mercader, a spokesman for Puerto Rico's governor. "Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the same. ... This is something of historic proportions."

A street is flooded in Pointe-a-Pitre, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, on September 19.