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Lee este artículo en español.

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Floods, debris taken to the streets at the last minute, lack of drinking water and electricity services, as well as landslides are the main fears of a group of mayors interviewed by El Nuevo Día in light of the possibility of a storm affecting Puerto Rico by the middle of this week.

“After the experience with Hurricane María, we have established that immediately there is a particular event there is a group of employees already duly assigned to throw themselves (into the streets) and attend to the main roads. The problem is that people go crazy removing debris,” said Aibonito Mayor William Alicea.

The mayor of Barranquitas, Elliot Colón, indicated that they were prepared and in continuous meetings to organize the work. He said that as a precautionary measure they cleaned areas near rivers and drains.

However, he acknowledged that in his town the terrain is prone to landslides and it is expected that a storm like the one approaching the island could bring more than eight inches of rain.

“The rain in Barranquitas, always when it rains a lot, there are landslides due to the topography of our town, and there are always landslides when there is a lot of rain. It is the order of the day,” said Colón, not without first indicating that the streets he is most concerned about are PR-152, PR-771 and municipal roads.

Alicea fears that the heavy rains will cause problems in the reconstruction projects already underway in his municipality, which total more than 30.

The mayor of Hormigueros, Pedro García Figueroa said he is concerned about the floods because there are housing developments near the Guanajibo River that are affected when there are heavy rains.

“We are all year round in that swamp, cleaning all the creeks and pipes. We have done the work. That’s the basics,” he said.

But García Figueroa added that he is worried about the loss of energy service because “the power lines have never been unhooked.

“Here in Hormigueros the power goes out every day. In the last week it has gone 3 or 4 times a day. Half of the town and the fields are left without power. That is constantly because the preventive disconnection was not done in the interior of the communities, in the primary lines,” said the mayor of Hormigueros.

He said that “there is a little wind and the power goes out”. When asked if they had spoken with LUMA Energy executives, García Figueroa said that the company does not have the personnel to deal with the problem.

The president of LUMA Energy, Juan Siaca, acknowledged Monday that there will be interruption of the energy system with the passage of the storm and that its reestablishment will depend on “the intensity of the event”. He said that winds greater than 50 miles per hour may affect the power grid. In addition, he said the outage plan only began in San Juan last month.

The mayor of Hormigueros noted that with the power going out, there are areas that are left without drinking water service and he fears that they will experience that problem after the storm.

“There are water sources that supply two thirds of the municipality and once the electricity goes out, the water goes out and we have a serious and definitive problem. Imagine, if in the last week, as I am telling you, in seven days the electricity has gone out four times, in different jurisdictions because of some little water leaks in the afternoon”, commented the mayor.

Meanwhile, the municipalities of the eastern and southeastern area were preparing for the effects of the approaching atmospheric system.

The mayors of the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra noted that they have stocked up on drinking water, supplies and fuel in anticipation of the possibility of a disruption in shipping.

“We have water trucks sent by the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA). Also, their tanks here are full, so there should be no problem for several days in case there is any situation,” Vieques Mayor José “Junito” Corcino Acevedo explained.

He noted that he has personnel from the Municipal Office of Emergency Management and other first responders positioned on the island municipality in case they are needed, while municipal employees were working to make sure there were no obstructions on the bridges.

He also pointed out that they have a public warning system, with loudspeakers, which would help to notify any emergency.

Regarding the energy service, Corcino pointed out that he expected to talk this Monday with LUMA Energy personnel, which is in charge of distribution and transmission of the electric network, to know about their plans. Meanwhile, he noted that the company Genera PR, in charge of generation, had recently informed him that the generators of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) were in place to provide service “to a large part of the population” in case LUMA’s supply is interrupted.

Similarly, the mayor of Culebra, Edilberto “Junito” Romero Llovet, noted that a month ago Genera PR turned on the generators installed in his municipality and “everything was fine”.

Even so, the population has begun to prepare. Romero Llovet noted that, on Monday morning, many people had gone to the only gas station in Culebra to fill up their vehicles and for other purposes.

Fortunately, the gas station had been refueled on Saturday, the official explained. He also noted that PRASA sent tanker trucks with drinking water.

Meanwhile, he assured that the Ecological School has been reinforced to continue serving as a shelter in case of emergency, with another electric generator in addition to the one it had and a solar energy generation system.

“We still don’t know (when shipping will stop), but it will be available until the Coast Guard says so,” he said.

“Quite a few people arrived today. The boat arrived full of workers and tourists. The good thing is that now there is an application that the new boat company notifies them if there is going to be any change, if it is moved forward or canceled,” he added.

On the other hand, the mayor of Yabucoa, Rafael “Rafy” Surillo Ruiz, said that since the early hours of the morning, municipal staff has been working on cleaning up areas that are traditionally susceptible to flooding, such as the communities Jaime Rodríguez, Jardines de Yabucoa, and Urbanización Méndez.

They are attending to the mouth of the river and removing debris. In addition, they are checking on bedridden people who benefit from the housekeeper system to make sure they have the necessary supplies.

According to Surrillo Ruiz, he was expecting personnel from the Department of Housing and the Department of Education this Monday for the certification of a new shelter, as repairs are still being made at Ramon Quiñones High School. So he anticipated the change to the José Facundo Cintrón elementary school, located in the urban area.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Fajardo, José Aníbal “Joey” Meléndez, said that some of the communities most affected by the latest floods recorded in his town are areas of Maternillo, which is below sea level; a sector of Las Croabas, after the vices of a construction; a street in Montebrisas.

However, he assured that for months they have had “an aggressive mitigation plan in the cleaning of sewers, dams, creeks and drains”.

“We are picking up the garbage, but we always call on the neighbors to be vigilant, because a single piece of trash that falls into a sewer can cause a street to flood”, Meléndez exhorted.

In case it is necessary, the shelter that will be activated in Fajardo will be the Berta Zalduondo school in Montebrisas.

Likewise, the mayor of Canóvanas, Lornna Soto Villanueva, informed that she has activated 250 employees from public works, emergency management and other agencies to implement an integral operation in the communities.

In a press release, she informed that the effort is focused on mitigating risks, collecting debris and orienting citizens on the importance of preparing for possible atmospheric events, so that they can guarantee the safety and health of our residents.

“We are already in the communities picking up debris, mitigating and orienting citizens to prepare,” Mayor Soto said.

“We want to ensure that every family is ready and protected. That is why I activated 250 employees from public works, emergency management, Healthy Canovanas and other agencies to carry out this comprehensive operation in the communities. We are conducting a double check to make sure everyone is prepared. If there is any situation that we need to address immediately, please do not hesitate to contact me by calling or texting me at (787) 692-969696 or call the municipality at (787) 876-2328″.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.