It will probably take months for Puerto Rico to recover — if not more. "Our town was hit but we will rise," San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz tweeted on Wednesday night. "Thank you for your solidarity."
Source: Twitter
At the height of the storm, Hurricane Maria engulfed the entire 3,515-square-mile island of Puerto Rico.
The strong winds destroyed many crops, as well, including this banana plantation in Guayama on the southern coast.
Without power, Puerto Ricans have no ability to keep things cool, run life-preserving hospital equipment, or charge phones to communicate. Because power can also keep water running, many were without water on Thursday.
It could be weeks or months before Puerto Ricans get electricity again. Before Maria hit, nearly 1 million people lost power when Hurricane Irma tore through the island.
Source: Business Insider
Debris littered the roads, which will have to be cleared before emergency workers can venture further to find people.
Rescue workers spent Thursday navigating through floodwaters and debris to find survivors and bring them to safety.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello of Puerto Rico announced Wednesday afternoon that he was instituting a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The storm surge, a term that refers to the waves that blown onshore by a hurricane's strong winds, was expected to reach 6 to 9 feet above normal levels on the coasts.
Over a dozen rivers flooded, some to record levels. Many flood gauges also broke as rivers waters rose 20 to 30 feet in some cases.
Much of Puerto Rico saw feet of rain. Caguas, in the central eastern part of the island, got 37.74 inches of rain by Thursday morning. Some of the rain gauges lost transmission in the conditions.
Miraculously, no deaths have been reported in Puerto Rico so far, though that may change. Hurricane Maria has killed at least 17 people on its journey through the Caribbean.
Cellphone communications failed as towers went down, leaving people waiting to find out if their loved ones were safe.
The National Weather Service measured wind gusts over 200 mph before Maria made landfall. But many wind gauges broke in the strong winds, so we may never know how strong they really were on the island.
Source: NWS San Diego