Hurricane Maria Live Thread

NHC/NOAA ^ | 9/16/2017 | NHC/NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Jose has been hanging around, waiting for attention in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Newcomer Maria threatens to impact the Caribbean Islands already devastated by Hurricane Irma, and brushed by Jose. Hurricane Jose threatens to brush or impact New England. Lee appears to be a fish storm at this time.

Mash images for larger or more info! All info updates automatically

Jose	Maria
>	>
Public Advisories	Public Advisories
Forecast Discussions	Forecast Discussions

[dirtboy]

It will be the weaker side of the storm, and it will probably be just tropical-storm force winds. More of a surf event.

[KC Burke]

Stayed at Nag’s Head once and saw sand banks cut three foot deep by just a May storm offshore that was nothing compared to this. It gets nice and raw out there, not as warmed by the Gulf Stream as I anticipated.

[nutmeg]

Just wanted to thank you so much for your exhaustive - and highly informative - work on the MANY hurricane threads over the past few weeks!

I know that you are / have been extremely busy away from the keyboard, and really didn't have a lot of time to continually post information on the threads. But you did! And for that we are all grateful. :-)

Let's hope Maria is the LAST of the hurricanes this season...

[gleeaikin]

My son and family near San Juan texted out that they are OK with only mild wind blown flooding under the front door. Use text if you can’t phone or email. It uses way less power/band width/whatever. For water you can use Clorox or Iodine. Also boiling if dry wood or paper are available??? For one gallon of clear water add about 1/8th teaspoon of regular bleach. Let debris settle out of water, then filter through clean cloth until clear. If cloudy double the bleach amount. See this for details: https://www.clorox.com/dr-laundry/disaster-preparedness-purifying-water/ Important note, new fancy “splashless”, “scented” don’t work. Read labels. For using Iodine. Put 3 drops in a large glass of clean water and let sit for 30 minutes before drinking.
Here is another update link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/24/americas/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-aftermath/index.html

The following information on giving may sound too left-wingy for some. However, I was once administrative secretary for 600 projects with grants and loans between $100 and $10,000 (1970) throughout Latin America and Caribbean. We never had a loan default by rural farm groups and cooperatives. Urban groups were less reliable. Therefore I think the idea of helping farmers and peasants get back to producing food is a good idea. They work and don’t sit around waiting for welfare.
“GIVE TO PUERTO RICO - Hurricane Maria cut off 100% of power to the whole of Puerto Rico and it could be months until it is restored. In the northwest of the island, government officials are creating additional confusion and uncertainty with conflicting “official” statements regarding the damaged Guajataca River Dam which prompted an initial call for the evacuation of 70,000 people in towns downstream of the reservoir. Although the structure has been significantly compromised, people are returning to their homes today after a spillway was opened Saturday night to lessen the pressure on the dam and the lake water is now receding. Governor Ricardo Rossello and the US National Weather Service (NWS) are still concerned that the dam will “give way at any moment.” There are also 23 Superfund sites in Puerto Rico, including a former U.S. naval testing range in Vieques.
“The hurricane was extremely strong, so it’s a big disaster down here, but we are bouncing back up with solidarity and the Puerto Rican spirit. Right now we are fixing roofs, cleaning drains, etc. Nevertheless, the infrastructure right now in the country is very damaged, so nothing is open. The country is completely classified as a disaster zone. All of the agriculture is gone. The impact of María was so strong that green landscapes and ecosystems in Puerto Rico are now brown with lots of fallen trees. Most of the infrastructure of small and medium scale farms is very damaged. The majority of the population doesn’t have communication, no service and signals are very low. I walked 30 minutes from where I live to find the bit of signal in which I’m sending this message. We are asking the international community to help donating whatever you can to help Puerto Rico and its ecological agriculture,” Jesús Vázquez of Proyecto Agroecológico El Josco Bravo.
Donate to Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica de Puerto Rico, a 28 year old grassroots organization that works and promotes agroecology within the food sovereignty struggle. Boricuá, is the official Chapter in Puerto Rico of the international peasant movement: La Vía Campesina (LVC)- Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC). Boricuá is a network of peasants (campesinos/as), farmers, farm workers, educators and activists that is deeply involved in a national social justice movement that builds a sustainable agriculture platform for small and medium scale peasants and farmers.
Account Number, Banco Popular: #162039034
PayPal: organizacion.boricua@ gmail.com”

[jeffers]

TJUA radar...No dome, no dish, compromised pedestle:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1426572634064837&id=164674916921288

Rated for 125 mph.

[jeffers]

TJUA radar...No dome, no dish, compromised pedestle:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1426572634064837&id=164674916921288

Rated for 135 mph.

[fatima]

Glad to hear that Gleeaikin.((((Hugs))))

[gleeaikin]

This link shows nighttime satellite photos of Puerto Rico on July 24, and Sept. 25, 2017. Boy, the lights are really out. Forward to those who need this information. Thanks for the hug, I needed that. :-)

http://mashable.com/2017/09/25/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-went-dark-power-failure/#jdy4gECESaq8

[fatima]

We are here for you.Thanks for the link.Be strong.(((((Hugs)))))

[SunkenCiv]

And from earlier:

• Puerto Rico Opens Arms to Refugees From Irma's Caribbean Chaos
• Irma Missed Them, But Puerto Ricans Became Heroes Anyway
• Spared Irma's Worst, Puerto Ricans Sail to Virgin Islanders' Aid

[NautiNurse]

Thanks

[Paul R.]

I have to admire the "spirit", if not the time frame in getting the radar back up:

From San Juan, PR, Weather office, the status of the radar --

000 NOUS62 TJSJ 251947 FTMJUA

MESSAGE DATE: SEP 25 2017 19:47:00

TJUA (NEXRAD IN CAYEY, PR) WAS ABUSED BY MARIA. AS A RESULT THE RADOME DIVORCED THE TOWER AND RAN AWAY WITH ONE DEPENDENT, THE ANTENNA. RECONCILIATION WILL HOPEFULLY BE COMPLETED IN 3 TO 6 MONTHS. MARIA FLED THE SCENE HEADING NORTHWEST. SHE IS CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS--DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND.

[gleeaikin]

Thanks for the links. I listened to confirmation hearing for head of Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said that the Army has been slow to make massive moves because radar is out in many of the airports, and the ports needed a massive cleanup for large ships to come in. The mercy ship Comfort has departed and will arrive PR in about 4 days. Didn’t leave earlier because of port conditions.

[gleeaikin]

See my comment #773 regarding slow arrival of Army help.

[jeffers]

You know ...that stump of a pedestal looked abused to me too.

https://youtu.be/-pDY1QGtYuA
(On the Dominica “Security Situation.”

[cll]

Hi NN,

Not sure if you’ve seen the loop animation at the bottom of this page. Maybe it’s just me, but around the time I asked you about the location of the eye just before my cell phone signal died, I remarked that the winds in San Juan, my location, had died down a little bit. In the video loop, around the same time, “just after” the storm hits the island and starts interacting with the mountainous terrain, a big “hole” in the “clouds” appear over most of the San Juan area, and it wasn’t the eye per se. Probably just brief protection of the city by the high mountains? I don’t think there were any winds over 100 MPH recorded in San Juan. Just an observation.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/18/world/americas/hurricane-maria-tracking-map.html

[NautiNurse]

Very good to hear from you. I recall that morning and typing feverishly to relay the updates, none of which were good news at the time. Interesting theory about the momentary quiet winds. Landfall is notorious for spawning tornadoes too.

How is the electrical power grid coming along?

[cll]

Well, we had power at home, and almost close to 50% of the island did too, but then we had another major blackout this morning when a big transmission line came off. They are slowly bring that back online right now. By next week, they say the full loop around the island should be completed giving more redundancy and stability, so they can start working on individual or localized failures.

It’s getting a little better each day...up until this.

[NautiNurse]

Your blackout yesterday made national news here on the mainland. I hope you are back up and running today.

[cll]

Just a quick note, Puerto Rico’s JUA NEXRAD replacement is up. As you might recall, the old one was destroyed by Hurricane Maria.

https://www.weather.gov/radar-pr/#radar-jua