Nadat orkaan Maria over Puerto Rico raasde, lag niet alleen de infrastructuur van wegen tot telefoonverbindingen en elektriciteitsvoorziening plat, maar was er zoveel water gevallen, dat de 90 jaar oude Guajataca dam in het noordwesten van Puerto Rico op barsten staat…….
Het lijkt wel een herhaling van zetten ‘Nederland – Sint Maarten’ na orkaan Irma (en Maria). De decennialang verwaarloosde infrastructuur op Sint Maarten lag na orkaan Irma al even plat, als die op Puerto Rico……
De VS geeft jaarlijks een enorm kapitaal uit aan ‘defensie’ (lees: illegale oorlogsvoering), maar zorgen dat de huizen en infrastructurele zaken op orde zijn, is er niet bij…… Puerto Rico, zogenaamd een staat van de VS*, staat wat de infrastructuur betreft (zelfs wegen e.d.), overigens precies als die in het grootste deel van de VS, achteraan als het om budgetten gaat…… Dat hebben wij gelukkig niet in Nederland, hier zou de infrastructuur zo hier en daar wel een stap terug mogen doen, de automobilisten raken meer en meer de weg kwijt op de landschapspest die asfalt heet…….
Lees het volgende artikel van Tyler Durden over Puerto Rico, zoals afgelopen zaterdag op Anti-Media geplaatst:
“Thousands
Could Die”: Puerto Rico Scrambles to Evacuate 70,000 as Dam Fails
September
23, 2017 at 9:00 am
Written
by Tyler
Durden
(ZHE) — Days
after Hurricane Maria passed over the island and made its way west
toward the Dominican Republican, Puerto Rico is still struggling with
the initial response to the storm – rescuing people stranded in
remote villages, and moving thousands into government shelters.
Meanwhile the island’s first responders are making due without
electricity, gas or cell phone service after the storm dealt a
knockout blow to its infrastructure.
In
what was perhaps the most destructive blow to the island’s aging
infrastructure, the NWS
warned Friday
that the Guajataca Dam in northwest Puerto Rico would soon fail,
prompting the agency to issue a flash flood emergency warning for
Isabela and Quebradillas municipalities. Now, authorities are
scrambling to evacuate the residents of the river valley below the
dam before their communities are entirely submurged. If the
authorities don’t act quickly, “thousands could die” one
official in charge of the rescue response said.
According
to federal reservoir data, the lake behind the dam, Lago de
Guajataca, rose more than three feet between Tuesday and Wednesday,
when the storm was still directly over the island. More recent data
were unavailable. With floodwaters gushing into the Guajataca river
valley, Reuters reports
that emergency officials were scrambling Friday and Saturday to
evacuate its nearly 70,000 residents before their villages have been
completely submerged.
Video
published by CBS shows waters gushing over the top of the 90-year-old
dam, sending a wall of water racing into the valley below.
The
National Weather Service warned of “imminent failure” and urged
residents in the area to “move to higher ground now.”
The
evacuation of the valley is perhaps the most high-stakes rescue
effort of the past week, according to Abner Gomez, executive
director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency. Gomez said
Friday that the dam’s floodgates suffered mechanical damage during
the storm, which made it impossible for authorities to open and let
out normal water currents.
He
added that “there
is no way to fix it” right now considering the conditions and said
if the dam tops over or fails structurally, “thousands of people
could die.”
The
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which operates the dam, says
that the failure is already causing flash flooding downstream. The
dam lies across the Guajataca River to form a reservoir that can hold
roughly 11 billion gallons of water.
According
to Weather.com, local
media have reported that residents of one small community near the
dam are refusing to evacuate, forcing authorities to invoke a law
that allows responders to evacuate children and the elderly in an
emergency.
The
latest crisis comes as the death toll on Puerto Rico rose to 21 on
Friday, when authorities said eight people had died in Tao Baha 30
miles from San Juan, where more than 4,000 people have been rescued
from floodwaters.
Meanwhile,
some shelters are running out of food and other essential supplies,
creating a situation that the island’s governor, Ricard Rossello,
described as a “humanitarian emergency.”
Maria
made landfall in Puerto Rico early Wednesday as a powerful Category 4
hurricane with 155 mph winds – the first Category 4 to hit the
island since 1932. The storm wiped out the island’s power grid and
dumped 20 to 30 inches of rain in 24 hours, with some areas seeing as
much as 40 inches. The storm could leave most of the island without
power for weeks – or possibly up to six months in some areas.
By Tyler
Durden /
Republished with permission / Zero
Hedge / Report
a typo
===================================
* Wel een belastingplichtige staat, maar zonder stemrecht voor de burgers en dat in een vereniging van staten, waarvan de politici en de reguliere media keer op keer pochen over hun democratie………. ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Je zou het op Puerto Rico gevoerde VS beleid ‘bijna’ kolonialistisch noemen!
Zie ook:
‘Puerto Rico (‘VS’) wordt nog steeds slecht of niet geholpen voor gevolgen orkaan Maria >> Trump: ‘eiland krijgt teveel hulp’‘ (zie ook de links in dat bericht)
Hier nog eens de berichten over Sint Maarten en orkaan Irma (en Maria):
‘Sint
Maarten: het jarenlang falende beleid van Nederland heeft orkaan Irma
‘de vrije hand gegeven…’‘
‘Sensatie
Radio1: orkaan Irma genoeg voor dagenlang extra NOS ‘nieuws……..
‘Plasterk
(PvdA) belooft dat elke ingezamelde cent voor het Rode Kruis naar
Sint Maarten gaat……..‘
‘‘Plunderingen’
Sint Maarten houden sensatiepers bezig……..‘
‘Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius en witte welgestelde Nederlanders te midden van orkaangeweld………‘
‘Plasterk (PvdA) de beste hulp voor Sint Maarten is werk in de toeristenindustrie……… AUW!!!‘
‘Zwagerman
uit de Sint Maarten bocht met 45 km/u………. Koenders (PvdA)
bedelt bij VN…….‘