(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ernesto took aim at Bermuda as almost half of Puerto Rico remained without power in the storm’s wake, the island’s fragile electric grid battered by high winds.
Officials declared a hurricane watch for Bermuda, saying Ernesto could strike the British territory early Saturday, with tropical storm conditions arriving Friday afternoon. Its top winds at 5 p.m. local time were 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Even as Ernesto lumbered toward Bermuda, Puerto Rico was dealing with the storm’s aftermath. More than 680,000 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday evening. And the island faced a continued risk of flash flooding, although rains were expected to taper off overnight.
“It doesn’t take a lot of rainfall for rivers to react or areas to be inundated,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Ernesto Morales at a press conference. Severe heat is forecast for Puerto Rico starting Thursday, and he urged residents to stay hydrated and find shade, given the continued lack of power.
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said at a news conference Wednesday morning that he directed grid manager Luma Energy to move quickly to lower the number of outages.
“We will have the response of how much damage there was from the storm after spending time in the streets,” Luma Chief Executive Officer Juan Saca said at the news conference. Power lines will not be re-energized until they have been inspected, he said during an update later in the day. The outages forced 23 hospitals to use generators for power.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration on Tuesday evening, allowing federal assistance to supplement local efforts in the US commonwealth.
Puerto Rico has endured a series of powerful storms in recent years that have repeatedly battered its fragile power grid and disrupted its economy. Hurricane Maria in 2017 killed more than 2,900 people, caused about $90 billion in damage and left many residents without electricity for months. Hurricane Fiona triggered another island-wide blackout in 2022.
The commonwealth’s 3.2 million residents suffer chronic outages even during calm weather because of the power grid’s poor condition. They also pay some of the highest electricity rates in the US. Luma Energy, a US-Canadian consortium, manages the grid and is tasked with modernizing and strengthening the system’s infrastructure, but progress has been slow.
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--With assistance from Michelle Kaske, Will Wade, Brian Wingfield, Brian K. Sullivan, Michelle Ma and Nacha Cattan.
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