Hurricane Luis Cuts a Path
9-6-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Dwarfing the island nations of the Caribbean with a 700-mile-wide maelstrom of wind and rain, Hurricane Luis destroyed homes and a hospital on two islands Tuesday and roared on toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Two storm-related fatalities were reported before the hurricane even reached Puerto Rico.
But forecasters expect the storm, one of the most dangerous in decades, to spare the East Coast of the United States and move northward from Puerto Rico into the Atlantic.
Several hotels were destroyed on Antigua and its sister island Barbuda, said Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello, who talked by telephone with the islands' prime minister, Lester Bird.
"The hospital there was destroyed as were many homes and buildings," Rosello said. He said Bird asked him to send a mobile hospital to Antigua.
Frightened tourists and islanders jammed airport terminals in Antigua, Guadeloupe and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands as the hurricane neared. San Juan's airport was calm.
Airports in the U.S. Virgin Islands closed at midday, and the last flight out of Puerto Rico left in the evening, hours before Luis was expected to begin skirting the northeast coast of Puerto Rico.
"Those people without reservations should not come to the airport because there are almost no seats left," said Armando Castro, an American Airlines official at San Juan's main airport.
Some of the control tower's windows were boarded up to keep them from being blown out.
The scene was repeated throughout islands in the path of one of the Caribbean's most powerful storms of the century. From shantytowns to gleaming tourist hotels, boards and metal sheets were hammered over windows.
Forecasters expect Luis to miss the Atlantic seaboard, moving north from Puerto Rico out to sea, but warn it could easily change course.
"It looks like all of the U.S. mainland will be spared. But, once again, this is an outlook," said meteorologist Michelle Huber of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
As the storm bore down on Puerto Rico, Rossello went on television and appealed to people not to panic. "Be calm, but be prepared," Rossello said.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Gov. Roy L. Schneider declared a state of emergency and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to prevent looting.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for Puerto Rico on Tuesday afternoon after the first intense thunderstorms struck the area. Such a watch means flash flooding is a "good possibility."
"This is similar to Hurricane Hugo in terms of strength and size," said Huber, referring to the 1989 storm.
At 2 a.m. EDT Wednesday, hurricane warnings were in effect for the islands in the northeastern Caribbean from Guadeloupe north to Puerto Rico. The center of Luis was about 40 miles east of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands and moving west-northwest at 8 mph.
The storm's maximum sustained winds were about 125 mph, and hurricane force winds extended 140 miles from the center, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Earlier Tuesday, Luis assaulted the northeastern Caribbean with gusts up to 146 mph. In Antigua, about 250 miles east of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the storm flipped roofs off houses and knocked down telephone lines. Even before it hit, trees were bent double.
People on several islands that Luis battered Monday night experienced sheer terror.
"At one point during the storm I thought `Just get me through this alive,'" said Kim Derrick, who survived the storm with her two daughters and husband in St. John's, Antigua. "You just lay there and think `Are we going to survive this?'"
"It's like a million ghosts howling outside," said Jackie Butler, a tourist from Davie, Fla., who rode out the storm in Derrick's home. The shrieking wind was punctuated by bangs as the hurricane ripped half the roof away.
Two fatalities occurred even before the hurricane's arrival.
In Arecibo, 45 miles west of San Juan, 82-year-old Francisco Gonzalez died Monday night after he fell off his roof while attempting to remove his TV antennae.
In Guadeloupe, waves up to nine feet high swept a 29-year-old French tourist from a jetty Monday while he was trying to photograph the sea. Thirteen people were hurt as the hurricane brushed past the island.
The National Guard was on alert and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was flying in communications teams and equipment aboard a C-5A transport plane.
In Puerto Rico, 48 inmates escaped from a minimum-security prison on Tuesday. About 18 who were recaptured told authorities they fled to be with their families before the hurricane hit, a radio station reported.
The same station, Newstalk 1560, apologized to listeners for suspending its daily O.J. Simpson coverage in order to broadcast hurricane updates.
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Dwarfing the island nations of the Caribbean with a 700-mile-wide maelstrom of wind and rain, Hurricane Luis destroyed homes and a hospital on two islands Tuesday and roared on toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Two storm-related fatalities were reported before the hurricane even reached Puerto Rico.
But forecasters expect the storm, one of the most dangerous in decades, to spare the East Coast of the United States and move northward from Puerto Rico into the Atlantic.
Several hotels were destroyed on Antigua and its sister island Barbuda, said Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello, who talked by telephone with the islands' prime minister, Lester Bird.
"The hospital there was destroyed as were many homes and buildings," Rosello said. He said Bird asked him to send a mobile hospital to Antigua.
Frightened tourists and islanders jammed airport terminals in Antigua, Guadeloupe and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands as the hurricane neared. San Juan's airport was calm.
Airports in the U.S. Virgin Islands closed at midday, and the last flight out of Puerto Rico left in the evening, hours before Luis was expected to begin skirting the northeast coast of Puerto Rico.
"Those people without reservations should not come to the airport because there are almost no seats left," said Armando Castro, an American Airlines official at San Juan's main airport.
Some of the control tower's windows were boarded up to keep them from being blown out.
The scene was repeated throughout islands in the path of one of the Caribbean's most powerful storms of the century. From shantytowns to gleaming tourist hotels, boards and metal sheets were hammered over windows.
Forecasters expect Luis to miss the Atlantic seaboard, moving north from Puerto Rico out to sea, but warn it could easily change course.
"It looks like all of the U.S. mainland will be spared. But, once again, this is an outlook," said meteorologist Michelle Huber of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
As the storm bore down on Puerto Rico, Rossello went on television and appealed to people not to panic. "Be calm, but be prepared," Rossello said.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Gov. Roy L. Schneider declared a state of emergency and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to prevent looting.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for Puerto Rico on Tuesday afternoon after the first intense thunderstorms struck the area. Such a watch means flash flooding is a "good possibility."
"This is similar to Hurricane Hugo in terms of strength and size," said Huber, referring to the 1989 storm.
At 2 a.m. EDT Wednesday, hurricane warnings were in effect for the islands in the northeastern Caribbean from Guadeloupe north to Puerto Rico. The center of Luis was about 40 miles east of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands and moving west-northwest at 8 mph.
The storm's maximum sustained winds were about 125 mph, and hurricane force winds extended 140 miles from the center, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Earlier Tuesday, Luis assaulted the northeastern Caribbean with gusts up to 146 mph. In Antigua, about 250 miles east of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the storm flipped roofs off houses and knocked down telephone lines. Even before it hit, trees were bent double.
People on several islands that Luis battered Monday night experienced sheer terror.
"At one point during the storm I thought `Just get me through this alive,'" said Kim Derrick, who survived the storm with her two daughters and husband in St. John's, Antigua. "You just lay there and think `Are we going to survive this?'"
"It's like a million ghosts howling outside," said Jackie Butler, a tourist from Davie, Fla., who rode out the storm in Derrick's home. The shrieking wind was punctuated by bangs as the hurricane ripped half the roof away.
Two fatalities occurred even before the hurricane's arrival.
In Arecibo, 45 miles west of San Juan, 82-year-old Francisco Gonzalez died Monday night after he fell off his roof while attempting to remove his TV antennae.
In Guadeloupe, waves up to nine feet high swept a 29-year-old French tourist from a jetty Monday while he was trying to photograph the sea. Thirteen people were hurt as the hurricane brushed past the island.
The National Guard was on alert and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was flying in communications teams and equipment aboard a C-5A transport plane.
In Puerto Rico, 48 inmates escaped from a minimum-security prison on Tuesday. About 18 who were recaptured told authorities they fled to be with their families before the hurricane hit, a radio station reported.
The same station, Newstalk 1560, apologized to listeners for suspending its daily O.J. Simpson coverage in order to broadcast hurricane updates.
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