New storms brewing in the Atlantic

Gary wrote:

5PM shift back to the south west. Landfall just east of Guayama. Boarding up finished and now relaxing. Dinner on its way and it smells good. Arroz con pollo is my guess. :)


Chocolate con queso de papa, is the way to keep warm and keep the stomach happy during the storm, your wife knows about that.

I am staying here, no way around it..
All boarded up, cars in the basement. We'll be fine..

Sitka & Gary,
Hoping everything works out ok for you guys...

Gary wrote:

5PM shift back to the south west. Landfall just east of Guayama. Boarding up finished and now relaxing. Dinner on its way and it smells good. Arroz con pollo is my guess. :)


Stay safe my friend!

7PM update, at 150 miles from PR. Sustained winds of 175 miles an hour and could get stronger. It has still a lot more hours to get stronger.

Today's numbers, my guess is landfall at Palmalova Mall / Yabucoa at 10:00; crosses Rt 52  10 miles S of Caguas; Crosses Rt 149 7 miles S of Manati pueblo; Crosses Rt 10 5 miles N of Rt 22; Crosses Rt 129 near Rafael Capo and that small airport 6 miles S of Arecibo centro/beach; and says muchas gracias PR after it crosses Isabela centro @ 5:00pm.

The most damage place is where the storm of the eye place. Praying for all the people out there. Just keep an eye tp your water damage restoration folks so that you won't have problems with any damage.

She started poppin a new eye a few hours ago and that automatically means more power. That's the problem with a pinhole eye, why it is referred to in the Meteorological literature as "The Dreaded Pinhole".  So by the time we wake up in the a.m., the usual predicted parameters of 30 miles out for hurricane speed winds may have increased up to doubled, 60 miles. That's the pinhole factor.

I believe she has weakened slightly to Cat-4 , and entered the island on the south eastern side, showing a northern path exiting possibly east of arceibo .
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphic … k#contentshttps://mobile.twitter.com/NWSSanJuan/s … 08/photo/1

I've been watching Maria for the last 12 hours, the worst weather currently seems to be marching south-to-north central Puerto Rico. Not what I expected.

For posterity's sake, I copy/pasted URL's for a bunch of PR Facebook livestreams hurricane videos I've been following - (moderators, please don't delete)


puerto rico 9/20/2017 https://www.facebook.com/jose.collazo.3 … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/plena.adentro/ … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/maricelleriver … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/wxchasing/vide … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/josantiago/vid … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/Alex1129/video … 141403084/https://www.facebook.com/DJVeras12/vide … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/edwin.colonnun … mp;theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Guaynabo … ref=streamhttps://www.facebook.com/luis.r.ramos.3 … mp;theater

Latest from NOAA:

"Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from
the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150
miles (240 km).  A sustained wind of 81 mph (130 km/h) with a gust
to 109 mph (175 km/h) was recently reported at Yabucoa Harbor,
Puerto Rico.  A sustained wind of 63 mph (101 km/h) with a gust to
118 mph (190 km/h) was recently reported at Camp Santiago, Puerto
Rico."

A 4 or 5 don't matter with a pin hole. Different creature with different powers that doesn't fit well into the pigeon hole classification system. Hurricane winds in PR from Maria now doubled from the norm of 30 miles to 60.

National Weather Service San Juan radar is down

2:00pm from NOAA:

At 200 PM AST the center of Hurricane Maria was located
by an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft just offshore of
the northwestern coast of Puerto Rico near latitude 18.5 North,
longitude 66.9 West.

That's Isabela.

She's app 200 M off shore but as you can see still punishing PR.

Time condensed color sat from NOAA covering 6 hr progression this a.m.

Time stamped in UTC but is same as Zulu.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/floater … imated.gif

We are still in the dark about Aguadilla area because no cell service or power.
And very little in the news or social media compared to other area.
Fingers crossed

Reports of extensive flooding in Arecibo.  Bridge wiped out, Dr. Susoni hospital evacuated, road washed out in front of hospital.

I know there is culebra river on the aguada/aguadilla line but don't know how hard the west coast got it?

More flooding on the west of the island, they are getting a lot of rain. Little info about the East of the island, most available info is about the Metro area. Ceiba, Fajardo, Rio Grande no info. Areas that were in the path of the eye of the storm, no info, not even in the news. Roads all over are not usable they need be clean and since there is no communication to speak off nobody knows what is going on.

Hows Fajardo? I'm still waiting to hear about our place in Culebra. However I've seen photos of St. Thomas and Vieques and it appears concrete structures are still standing and doing good. A reported satellite phone call to Culebra has mentioned no reported deaths and everyone is safe, with some houses (wood?) that came down.

Jenmag wrote:

I know there is culebra river on the aguada/aguadilla line but don't know how hard the west coast got it?


Lots of flooding and more flooding on the way, Some bridges washed out, the storm is still dropping a lot of rain in the west, likely until Friday.

Until water receded some and crews clear main arteries in PR, we are going to have little to no news. Crews need clear roads and fix major Electric cabling before they can do anything about small stations. Electricity production was also affected, unsure if any plants are running.

It also appears Live news is not working i.e. wapa and telemundo.pr is that correct?
I only see news from 11 hours ago or so..

CasaSunny wrote:

Hows Fajardo? I'm still waiting to hear about our place in Culebra. However I've seen photos of St. Thomas and Vieques and it appears concrete structures are still standing and doing good. A reported satellite phone call to Culebra has mentioned no reported deaths and everyone is safe, with some houses (wood?) that came down.


The main concern is flooding now, concrete houses built properly will stand just fine even in a stronger storm, so fear not about that, wooden houses destroyed or no roof in many parts of PR. Costal areas in some areas have received a lot of damage, some concrete houses may be damaged to to the sea and flooding. But I am speaking in general, there is very little info getting out.

CasaSunny wrote:

It also appears Live news is not working i.e. wapa and telemundo.pr is that correct?
I only see news from 11 hours ago or so..


Wapa link not working reliably. I had a few seconds and then nothing, been trying since early today

Ok great that's good I thought I was the only one with the wapa issue. Well fingers crossed that a projectile didnt hit the house!

Airport still not running for large airplanes, some island hopping airlines are operating out of airport. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A% … Uaqf9i5T3w

Heavy rain in the west, though seems to be less wind damage.  Cabo Rojo, about as far away from Maria as you could be and still be on the island got 12.5 inches of rain yesterday, and it continues to fall.

Found these pictures of the Weather Channel.  Some from Antilles, others from DR, but plenty from PR.

https://weather.com/photos/places/news/ … ria-photos

Airport should be open tomorrow, each airline is to make decicion to fly or not. However roads are mostly impassable at this time so if you cone in you may not be able to reach your destination. Large roads and highways and roads to hospitals will be priority.

The word coming out of Aguadilla is the downtown area was flooded, then the water receded and people went back to their homes and businesses and have started the cleanup.
Most of the damage in the area was to the wooden houses, trees, and utility poles.
Ramey air base area supposedly faired well with light damage. 

Parts of Aguada were flooded as well.
Not much info on Rincon yet.

They are hoping some type of cell service will be established to the Aguadilla area in the next 24-48 hours.. but it will be battery powered and intermittent.
The video of crash boat beach thrashed is pretty crazy ... suprised that maria took down the old pier and platforms.
Also suprised that some of the other structures on that beach survived as well as they did given the deluge.

Now we are waiting to hear the latest from potential fallout of the dam failure.

The earliest jet blue flight is for next weekend I believe.

Thank you for the update!  I've been waiting to hear about some friends in Rincon :(  I watched that Crashboat Beach video...really sad.

YouTube video of the North coast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9SVvy8o6F4

Great find Sitka.

And look at his next one in line on youtube of the Dam they say may breach imminently--shoot that damned dam failed yesterday morning, same breach dimension 30-feet? and same amount of massive water flying out of there in a rage as shown in video from Weathernation.com. and posted here yesterday by Dawg and elcalipocho.

In this second one he also heads to the w coast but hard to say where he is.

In both sometimes hard to decipher where he is, announces his position only occasionally. So look for landmarks you are familiar with like a particular Pepboys or Home Depot--HD only can be the one in Arecibo--saw both of them; or distinctive condo developments,  or homes or golf courses or roads you know by sight.

The Columbus statute we know is Arecibo.

I was encouraged by what I saw in Isabela and Arecibo coastal, kind of hit and miss as to what she destroyed, more like a tornado then hurricane in coastal areas he flew. But it definitely got worse as he went east toward coastal Dorado. Maybe Isabela/Arecibo got a bit of a reprieve after her first smack when the eye came over, which was 6 Miles last measurement over PR, until they eye passed and then the area got smacked again with her back loop.

Yes, I know the entire area he filmed, good footage!  Unfortunately, he skipped the Hatillo area, so can't see my house .    :(
.

More youtube videos are emerging from popular areas. Saw a 90 sec chopper video, no voice, shot over Utuado.  Rt 10 was completely caved in/collapsed maybe 75-150 feet both lanes at an elevated spot, so straight down if anyone had the misfortune of driving there when it caved.  I'd say north of Utuado, which makes it worse then south of town toward Ponce.

Four huge landsides on surrounding mountain sides, plain to figure out, huge wide swaths of foliage missing from the top to the ground. Zoomed on a several mountainside communities, maybe 50-60 homes in each. Destroyed. Barren foliage total area other then grass.

Safe to say extra bad for the mountain dwellers E or W PR, they're going to be the last ones to get power. A few on the board we haven't heard from, Gary and NanRaughley and Larry Johnson off the top of my head.