Close to half of Puerto Ricans are without power as Ernesto becomes a hurricane

About half of Puerto Rico's power customers were without power on Wednesday as Ernesto turned into a Category 1 hurricane and pummeled the island.

Concretely, over 723,000 clients had no power in the afternoon, the Puerto Rico Emergency Portal System said. Officials had anticipated widespread outages as the island's precarious grid has not been fully restored since Hurricane María gravely impacted it in 2017.

Secretary of Public Safety Alexis Torres told press that strong winds caused debris and vegetation to fall on roads and power lines, bringing them down. The National Guard had already been activated on Tuesday and island authorities suspended classes in public schools.

Moreover, residents who live in the western end of Toa Baja were told to evacuate their homes in the morning as powerful rains overflowed the main river, turning the situation dangerous. David Concepción, mayor of Cidra, told Telemundo Puerto Rico that most of the town's residents have no power or water.

Torres said that hundreds of families are also in danger as the rains caused at least three major rivers to burst out of their banks, while four mayors added that conditions are not safe for their residents to leave their homes. At least 375 people were in shelters early Wednesday.

According to Governor Piedro Pierluisi, Luma Energy's brigades are already being deployed. "What we want is for the number of customers without service to have their power restored," Pierluisi said. He did not say when 100% of the power will be restored.

President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico on Tuesday, authorizing the disbursement of aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The storm is the fifth one with a name of the season and could become a Category 3 hurricane.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a hurricane season above average this year, with between 17 and 25 named storms and four to seven storms that could be category 3 or higher.

The latest one was Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph at Steinhatchee, a small village on Florida's sparsely populated Big Bend coastline. The storm has led to widespread power outages and at least four people died as a result.

In July, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane, later striking Texas as a Category 1 storm, causing at least 23 deaths and widespread power outages.