The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, reported that a person died today on the island because of Hurricane Maria, raising to 9 the provisional figure of deaths by this powerful hurricane throughout the Caribbean.
Rosselló told CNN that the deceased, a man, was killed by the impact of a board that had been installed to protect a house from the wind and which flew away.
He warned, however, that he has not yet received reports of the southeast of the island, where Mary struck.
This death is added to another in Guadeloupe and 7 in Dominica, islands through which Mary spent Monday night.
The passage of the hurricane today by Puerto Rico has left the totality of its 3.5 million inhabitants without light.
Rosselló said the total restoration of electric service will be “a matter of months, not days or weeks,” while San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin said it will take 4-6 months to recover.
“Life will not be as we knew it before,” Yulin said.
Both the mayor and the governor have already ordered their public officials to go out to check the damage.
Efe was able to verify that some gas stations of San Juan were destroyed and that the center of Condado, a residential district of the capital with many hotels, has the streets flooded.
Efe also verified that Isla Verde (municipality of Carolina), one of the tourist zones to the east of San Juan, is impassable.
Precisely in Carolina, the emergency teams had to rescue 60 people trapped by the floods.
The mayor of Castaño (west of San Juan), Félix Delgado, explained that “all” its 25,000 inhabitants “have lost something”.
In the capital, authorities arrested 8 adults and two minors for stealing at a popular Plaza Loiza supermarket.
In addition, the wind ripped off a part of the exterior roof of the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, which houses the main shows and sporting events in the city.
Maria landed this morning on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico as a category 4 hurricane and winds of 250 miles per hour, and went through the island for hours on the northwest.
At this time a curfew rules the entire island that Rosselló decreed and will be in force until 06.00 on Friday and between 18.00 on Friday and 06.00 on Saturday.
