Saturated parts of Puerto Rico were bracing for more potential flooding on Monday, as the rain that pounded the U.S. territory over the weekend, causing at least two deaths, threatened to return.
“Calm weather conditions are expected this morning across the islands,” the National Weather Service in San Juan said Monday morning. “However, afternoon showers are expected once again over the interior and eastern PR. Due to saturated soils and the anticipated activity the flooding risk remains elevated today.”
“Increasing instability” on Tuesday could bring another potential round of heavy rainfall, the NWS said. This week could bring 1 to 2 inches of rain to the island’s interior sections, on top of the 10 to 20 inches the interior sections have already received since mid-April, the NWS said. With soils saturated and river levels well above normal, “PR has an elevated threat of flooding, as many locations in the interior and near mountains are vulnerable,” the agency added.
Weekend rains submerged streets, stranded families and led to the death of a 44-year-old man, Puerto Rican authorities said Sunday. Febus Padilla was killed and 43-year-old Yesenia Díaz Pacheco hospitalized Saturday after a landslide hurled a tree onto the hood of their car at about 8:10 p.m. as they drove along a highway in Toa Baja, authorities said. Díaz was in stable condition on Sunday.
Padilla’s was the second death from the rains that have lashed the islands since April 19. Last Monday a man was swept away and killed while trying to drive through floodwaters in the capital of San Juan. On Sunday more than two dozen families were cut off after the rains opened a sinkhole in Aguas Buenas, a town outside San Juan. Elsewhere, ruptured pipelines disrupted crucial water supplies.
Municipalities across the island have reported millions of dollars in damages so far. Several have been under a state of emergency declared last Thursday, and on Sunday Puerto Rico’s Public Safety Secretary, Arturo Garffer, added three more Garffer visited most of those regions on Saturday, accompanied by their mayors, the San Juan Daily Star reported.
With News Wire Services
