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posted by takyon on Thursday September 21 2017, @04:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the good-time-to-implement-strict-building-codes dept.

At 9PM ET September 20, ABC News reported

The island of Puerto Rico has been "destroyed" after Hurricane Maria made landfall there as a Category 4 storm Wednesday morning, according to emergency officials.

Puerto Rico's office of emergency management confirmed that 100 percent of the U.S. territory had lost power, noting that anyone with electricity was using a generator.

Multiple transmission lines sustained damage from the storm, said Ricardo Ramos, director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. Ramos said he hopes to begin launching helicopters by this weekends to begin inspecting the transmission lines.

Telecommunications throughout the island have "collapsed", Abner Gomez Cortes, executive director of Puerto Rico's office of emergency management and disaster administration agency, told ABC News.

[...] Cortes described Maria as an unprecedented storm, adding that the island had not seen a storm of that strength since 1928.

[...] Puerto Rico was still experiencing tropical-storm force winds Wednesday afternoon, forcing emergency services and search and rescue teams to wait before heading out to assess the damage, Cortes said.

More than 12,000 people are currently in shelters, and hospitals are now running on generators, Cortes said. Two hospitals--one in Caguas and one in Bayamon--have been damaged.

No deaths have been reported so far, but catastrophic flooding is currently taking place on the island. Multiple rain gauges have reported between 18 and 24 inches of rain, with some approaching the 30-inch mark over the last 24 hours.

Flooding is the danger "that will take lives", Cortes said, advising residents not to venture out of their homes until Thursday because "it is not safe to go out and observe".

[...] As of 8 p.m. ET, Maria had weakened to a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained wind of 110 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

[...] Some strengthening is possible now that the storm is back over the ocean, so Maria has potential to become a Category 3 hurricane again.

National Hurricane Center graphics for Maria.
Map of Caribbean Islands.

At 15:20 UTC, Mashable reported

Clips shot in the [cities] of Farjado, San Juan, and Guyama show buildings experiencing extreme structural damage. Doors are being ripped right off their hinges, and windows, walls, and roofs of homes, restaurants, and hotels are being stripped away by the storm's incredible power.


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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:02PM (11 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:02PM (#571292) Journal

    Sure, I don't disagree with that.

    I was just pointing out that taking out 100% of the electrical grid counts as "destruction" in most people's book.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Troll) by requerdanos on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:25PM (10 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:25PM (#571307) Journal

    taking out 100% of the electrical grid counts as "destruction" in most people's book.

    Well, sure, destruction of something on the island.

    Not of the Island.

    Sort of like destruction of your theory here does not equate to you, yourself being destroyed.

    It's not a difficult separation to make; different things are different even if one is a superset of the other on a massive scale.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by http on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:50PM (9 children)

      by http (1920) on Thursday September 21 2017, @06:50PM (#571316)

      Aristotle said it well:

      ... for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; we would no more demand scientific proofs from a rhetorician than we would accept mere plausibility from a mathematician.

      -- Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1 (~350BC)

      --
      I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by requerdanos on Thursday September 21 2017, @07:06PM (2 children)

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 21 2017, @07:06PM (#571331) Journal

        it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision

        Still, I would submit that genuinely confusing "some poles and wires" with "an island of 13,000 square kilometers (~5,000 sq mi) with a population of over three million" reflects a serious problem of perception and understanding that goes far beyond a simple "lack of precision."

        • (Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday September 21 2017, @09:06PM (1 child)

          by DECbot (832) on Thursday September 21 2017, @09:06PM (#571405) Journal

          Additionally, does "destroyed" mean that there are lines down and a few towers and poles with damage and need repair, or does it mean the majority of poles and high voltage towers are so utterly damaged and missing that the entire grid requires outright replacement? "Destroyed" makes me think of the latter, but the statement from the Mr. Ramos sounds more like the former. Either way, I'd like a descriptor better than "damaged."

          --
          cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
          • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Friday September 22 2017, @01:48AM

            by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday September 22 2017, @01:48AM (#571519) Homepage Journal

            It means absolutely obliterated. Their electrical grid is totally destroyed and so many other things. It’s in very, very, very perilous shape. It’s very sad what happened to Puerto Rico (what is going to happen to North Korea). I wouldn't bail them out. You have to cut the debt way down and get back to business. 🇺🇸

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 21 2017, @10:53PM (5 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 21 2017, @10:53PM (#571450) Journal

        Good. Now, for the sake of precision, post the quote in Greek (the original language), please.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday September 22 2017, @01:46AM (4 children)

          by Gaaark (41) on Friday September 22 2017, @01:46AM (#571518) Journal

          For the sake of precision we need to dig up Aristotle and bring him back to life and ask for the exact quotation....

          ....could prove to be difficult, though.

          :)

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 22 2017, @02:01AM (3 children)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 22 2017, @02:01AM (#571523) Journal

            ....could prove to be difficult, though.

            I'll tell you another thing that may prove difficult: posting anything in Greek characters.
            As of now, if try using the Greek characters plane of UNICODE, you'll be very likely asked "to figure out something else." by the lame lameness filter.
            Come one, give it a try, go to Know thyself [wikipedia.org] and copy/paste those Greek Unicode characters, see what goes.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Friday September 22 2017, @09:04AM (2 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Friday September 22 2017, @09:04AM (#571594) Journal

              Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 1, as follows:

              λέγοiτο δ᾽ ἂν iκανῶς, εἰ κατὰ τὴν ὑποκεiμένην ὕλην δiασαφηθείη: τὸ γὰρ ἀκρiβὲς οὐχ ὁμοίως ἐν ἅπασi τοῖς λόγοiς ἐπiζητητέον, ὥσπερ οὐδ᾽ ἐν τοῖς δημiουργουμένοiς.

              Yep, you need to remove every unaccented iota, replaced here with a barbaric Latin "i".

              Source: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053%3Abekker%20page%3D1094b [tufts.edu]

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @10:02AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @10:02AM (#571601)
                Note to myself: ε as a substitute for e sooner
              • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday September 22 2017, @10:08AM

                by aristarchus (2645) on Friday September 22 2017, @10:08AM (#571602) Journal

                Wrong section, Book 1, Chapter 3!

                τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ τρόπον καὶ ἀποδέχεσθαi χρεὼν ἕκαστα τῶν λεγομένων: πεπαiδευμένου γάρ ἐστiν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον τἀκρiβὲς ἐπiζητεiν καθ᾽ ἕκαστον γένος, ἐφ᾽ ὅσον ἡ τοῦ πράγματος φύσiς ἐπiδέχεταi: παραπλήσiον γὰρ φαίνεταi μαθηματiκοῦ τε πiθανολογοῦντος ἀποδέχεσθαi καὶ ῥητορiκὸν ἀποδείξεiς ἀπαiτεiν. ἕκαστος δὲ κρίνεi καλῶς ἃ γiνώσκεi, καὶ τούτων ἐστὶν ἀγαθὸς κρiτής.