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posted by martyb on Saturday September 23 2017, @12:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the head-for-the-hills dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Saturday September 23 2017, @05:46AM (2 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Saturday September 23 2017, @05:46AM (#572005) Journal

    Sounds like science is well on it's way to another correct prediction. [weather.com]

    Hmm....I wonder if we could apply these principles to predict other changes to the climate.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @04:12PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @04:12PM (#572122)

    According to NOAA, "The outlook reflects our expectation of a weak or non-existent El Niño, near- or above-average sea-surface temperatures across the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea and average or weaker-than-average vertical wind shear in that same region."

    Strong El Niños typically lead to increased wind shear in parts of the Atlantic Basin, suppressing the development or intensification of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic, so the prediction for weak conditions increased the chance for more activity this season.

    It seems like everything that happens with weather gets blamed on this el nino all the time. Apparently it does work in the case of hurricanes though.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @04:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @04:17PM (#572123)

      There is no consensus on whether climate change will have any influence on the occurrence, strength or duration of El Niño events, as research supports El Niño events becoming stronger, longer, shorter and weaker.[20][21]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o [wikipedia.org]

      Damn, this seems like one of the most important predictions to make.