we will be thinking of you. 
Be safe, Boricuas. We’re next.
Be as safe as you can JRDelirious. I’m so worried for you.
You too, Mighty Girl.
Hunker down. Please. Be safe.
Again, stormcarib.com is a good place for 1st person reporting
PR:
Puerto Rico - Local Reports (Caribbean Hurricane Network)
Vieques:
(yes, it is 3:45 AM my time as I post this)
Brian
About to enter full hurricane conditions. No power since a little before midnight. It’s going to be a long day and another long night.
Most contacts report safe as of now - but here comes the big test.
Landfall near Yubucoa (southeast corner of PR) at 6:15 AST
Brian
I am checking stormcarib and the NHC sites hourly…
Brian
Some wind and moderate (by Caribbean standards) rain. Airport still working, a plane is taking off right now.
And another plane. For the low season, there seems to be unusual traffic today. I wonder if tourists are self-evacuating…
Airport closed a few hours ago, storm winds and rain. All services working. We sprung a leak, so that will be a couple hundred bucks. The hurricane is as close to us now as it’ll ever get.
People in flimsier, non-concrete homes may not be faring as well.
Maria has left Puerto Rico, left the entire island without power.
looks like a lot more rain to come yet
PBS NewsHour had a segment on Maria.
Fajardo is where the ferries to Vieques/Culebra depart
Brian
(this is an indirect quote, and I’m not 100% sure it the word is “destroyed”)
Wind has gotten worse, we sprung some leaks, lost some of the tool shed roof, and terrace trelice flew into the great beyond.
But then I remember that this is nothing
Holy Saffir-Simpson Scale, Batman, this sucked AND blew both physically and figuratively.
They called this wind Maria and after this bitch they’ll retire the name from the rotation and good riddance. The mother first wrecked Dominica even blowing away the PM’s house then headed for us.
By Tuesday it was impossible to buy a ticket out and the airline ticket pricing algorithms went nuts.
As of elevenish in the morning everyone in the family seemed to be doing OK then the eyewall went over our hometown and along with a score other small towns they are cut off by every means except first responder radios. The cel network has gone down in most of the island and even here in SJ it’s iffy. The radio news stations succumbed to different calamities from building damage to network failures to the point there is a grand total of ONE news station conventionally on the air. Which is a problem because with no power and a failing network you can’t rely on the webcast. So a major part of the island is de facto in Schrodinger’s box. You may imagine how that has on people’s nerves.
What IS in reach is a hot wet wreck – lots of property damage, severe flooding, thousands of displacees. Deluxe condos and hotels clobbered just as much as working class prefabs. Airport terminal a mess. Economic losses sure to be crippling. It will be tomorrow afternoon at the soonest that anyone takes a look at the big picture, but we are talking that whole chunks of the power grid are going to have to just be installed afresh. Of course I’m in the dark again and now with the bonus that because of the flooding the water is cut off too. For the first time dince maybe WW2 there’s a general curfew dusk-to-dawn. Fully expect the NG in the streets by the weekend.
May I say these are in contention for the worst 24 hours I’ve had to deal with ever. Home damages seem minimal at least structurally but of course I do not yet know all places water may have got into and how much, and I need to wait for tomorrow daylight to examine wiring, AC units, etc. I gotta say, there were some times I was worried, though this house is built like a damn Maginot Line unit (*), that there would be a failure at a door or window or where an extension joins the old construction, one could just feel the strain.
Irma and Maria will be felt for a long time in the NE Caribbean.
Here it’s looking to be one huge rebuild project. Just at the time we can least afford one, but we will get to it.
That is, we will after I chop up this tree blocking my driveway. That’s tomorrow’s project if the rain allows it.
(*That part does differentiate us from the Leewards/Virgins - our housing stock is on average a lot sturdier. I have whole walls of poured reinforced concrete and I could kiss them. But many of our rural poor can be just as screwed as theirs when the winds blow.)
Two comforting things about my sister’s place on Vieques:
It isn’t near the shore, so storm surge isn’t an issue (I don’t know the flooding possibilities)
It is concrete block construction
(I guess 3 is that she isn’t there. We know the renter survived Irma)
I tried amateur radio (just listening as I’m not set up to transmit at the moment) but didn’t get anything useful during my brief check.
Brian
And thanks for the update
I am so glad to hear from you. I am being side-swiped by a faraway weakened cat 2, and holy hell, have I had enough of this shit.
So far no services interrupted at any time. Our concrete bunker has held up, though we have a few more hours to go. Some soft damage, we calculate a couple of thousand dollars to fix them, which, after seeing the alternative, don’t bother us that much.
I am not going to lie, this is scary, and we’re incredibly lucky, I know many around us won’t be so lucky.
So glad you came through the storm and posted, JRD. I do not envy you a bit.
The worst I’ve ever been through was a cat 2, and never want to experience either that or worse again.
Good luck with the clearing and rebuilding.
Does anyone know the best best organization for sending aid to Puerto Rico?
Glad to see you checking in, JR.