Hurricane Irma Skirts Puerto Rico, Leaves 1 Million Without Power
Source: NBC News
SEP 7 2017, 7:27 AM ET
by ALEX JOHNSON, DANIEL ARKIN and JASON CUMMING
Hurricane Irma has plunged more than 1 million residents of Puerto Rico into darkness, but the Category 5 storm stayed just out to sea early Thursday after slamming a string of small Caribbean islands and killing at least nine people.
Officials say Irma demolished the tiny island of Barbuda before skirting Puerto Rico on Wednesday night — with its destructive path expected to graze the Dominican Republic before targeting the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos on Friday. A hurricane watch was likely to be issued later Thursday for portions of southern Florida and the Florida Keys.
Irma is only the latest setback for Puerto Rico, which has been ravaged by an economic crisis for the last decade. Its crumbling infrastructure means that parts of the U.S. territory could be blacked out for months, authorities warned earlier in the week.
Ricardo Ramos, chief executive of the island's electric utility, said about two-thirds of the island's electric customers — more than 1 million — were without power late Wednesday. More than 56,000 people were without potable water.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-irma/hurricane-irma-skirts-puerto-rico-lashing-it-powerful-winds-flooding-n799086
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