Biden promises that the US will not abandon Puerto Rico after Fiona

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that the full force of the federal government is ready to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Fiona, as Bermuda and Canada’s Atlantic provinces prepare to for the impact of the category 4 hurricane.

In a briefing with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in New York, Biden said: “We are in this together.”

The president pointed out that hundreds of officials from FEMA and other agencies are already in Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused a blackout throughout the island.

More than 60% of customers were still without power Thursday, and a third of consumers had no water. Local officials admitted they could not say when service would be fully restored.

In a message to the people of Puerto Rico, who are still very hurt by the passage of Hurricane Maria five years ago, Biden said: “We are with you. We will not abandon them.”

That seemed to stand in contrast to the reaction of former President Donald Trump, who has been widely accused of an inadequate response to Maria, which left some Puerto Ricans without power for 11 months.

Fiona is expected to maintain Category 4 strength overnight as she passes near Bermuda, where authorities were already opening shelters and announced schools and offices would be closed on Friday.

Fiona’s outer bands were already reaching that British territory by Thursday afternoon.

It is forecast to remain large and dangerously powerful when it reaches the Atlantic Canadian provinces, likely late Friday, as a post-tropical cyclone.

“It’s going to be a storm that the whole world will remember,” said Bob Robichaud, a warning preparedness meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Center.

Hundreds of people in Puerto Rico were still cut off by road four days after the hurricane devastated the island, and frustration was mounting for people like Nancy Galarza, who was trying to signal for help from work crews she saw in the distance. .

“Everyone goes down,” he said, pointing to crews at the foot of the mountain helping others who had been marooned by the storm. “Nobody comes to see us. I am worried about the old people in my community,” she added.

At least five landslides cover the narrow road that leads to their community located in the rugged mountains that surround the northern city of Caguas. The only way to get to the settlement is to climb over the thick mounds of mud, rocks, and debris left behind by Fiona. The flooding caused by the rains shook the foundations of nearby houses with a force similar to that of an earthquake.

It sounded “as if the stones were thunder,” recalled Vanessa Flores, a 47-year-old school custodian. “I’ve never heard that in my life…it was horrible.”

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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