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As if the onslaught of hurricanes Irma and Maria were not enough, the National Weather Service in San Juan is reporting that a major dam is failing in Puerto Rico and that 70,000 people are being evacuated by bus. From CBS:
The National Weather Service in San Juan said Friday that the northwestern municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas, home to some 70,000 people, were being evacuated with buses because the nearby Guajataca Dam was failing after Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory.
Maria poured more than 15 inches of rain on the mountains surrounding the dam, swelling the reservoir behind it.
Details remained slim about the evacuation with communications hampered after the storm, but operators of the dam reported that the failure was causing flash-flooding downstream. The 345-yard dam holds back a man-made lake covering about 2 square miles and was built decades ago, U.S. government records show.
"Move to higher ground now," the weather service said in a statement. "This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order."
"Act quickly to protect your life," it added. "Buses will be evacuating people from these areas."
Wikipedia has a page about Guajataca Dam
NWS report on Twitter; also at Al Jazeera and BBC.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @05:53AM (4 children)
Since when is "The Cajun Navy" part of USA.mil?
The response from USA.gov to any disaster during the Trump administration has been abysmal.
...or during any Repug administration in recent memory.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 23 2017, @01:53PM (3 children)
"or during any Repug administration in recent memory"
Your memory isn't very good, is it? When Katrina hit, the dummocrat mayor and the dummocrat governor spent DAYS (literally) dithering over nonsense. It wasn't until the repug president put a call in, and ASKED the dummocrats if they needed any help, that things began to happen.
And, just how many disasters have you counted, since Trump was sworn in? Your language suggests that there have been an awful lot of them!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @04:19PM
so why is President Bush and his FEMA appointee so badly reported on as well?
It took a team to mess it up. It didn't matter the political bent in that case, because the response and results were incompetent. I'd only have blamed politics if it seemed that someone smart was getting blocked by someone dumb.
then the matter of promising to rebuild in the same places with little differences unless the owners wanted to pony up their own money for a house on stilts...
i really wish that if they wanted to politicize global warming, then fine, but at least frame the infrastructure building, and insurance requirements with different words that reflect the realities of big business expenses and losses due to having to repeatedly rebuild what is being shown to be inappropriate due to recent events, even if they are repeated 1 in 100 year or 1 in 500 year or never before seen events.
Even asphault is falling apart more quickly than it used to be because of some sort of unusual heat wave that is persisting despite there being no climate change. They could change the forumla and silently repave where needed and not draw attention to the fact they are spending more money now to save on the repeated maintenance later.
(Score: 4, Funny) by isostatic on Saturday September 23 2017, @07:48PM
And, just how many disasters have you counted, since Trump was sworn in?
Just one long one. It started January 20th.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @09:40PM
When Katrina hit, Dubya sat on his thumb instead of being proactive.
The president is often called "The Chief Executive".
Your memory isn't very good
My memory is just fine.
I remember Dubya saying "Heck of a job, Brownie" to a guy who had ZERO experience in disaster relief.
That would be the guy who spent most of his time flying over New Orleans in his jet, not on the ground getting things going.
...then his buying a bunch of trailers that weren't fit for humans because of formaldehyde outgassing.
I remember Cuba (which has a FEMA-like thing THAT IS ACTUALLY EFFECTIVE) offering help and Dubya turning it down.
Ignoring the impoverished people of color in New Orleans was just another part of the Repug plan to disempower them even more (in addition to e.g dishonestly removing them from voter rolls).
Naomi Klein wrote a book on the Repug attitude toward poor people's bad luck: just another chance to exploit them.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism [google.com]
how many disasters
For anyone who isn't rich|Authoritarian, Trump has been one continuous disaster.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]