San Juan ‘Getting Ravaged’ as Hurricane Rips Up Coast : Thousands Homeless, at Least 9 Dead

Hurricane Hugo’s 125 m.p.h. winds pounded Puerto Rico today after ripping across other islands in the eastern Caribbean and leaving at least nine people dead and thousands homeless.

The National Weather Service said Hugo, the most powerful storm to hit the region this decade, slammed into the eastern tip of Puerto Rico and skirted the northern coast, churning up 6-foot tidal surges. Forecasters expected up to 15 inches of rain and flooding and mudslides all over the island.

“We’re getting ravaged,” said amateur radio operator Fernando Garcia in San Juan. “Part of my aluminum siding is gone, my next door neighbor’s aluminum siding is gone.”

There were reports of heavy damage, some looting, no water and no electricity throughout Puerto Rico. U.S. Navy warships steamed northward, out of the storm’s path.

At noon, Hugo’s center was near latitude 18.6 degrees north and longitude 66.0 degrees west, or about 20 miles north of San Juan, said the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fla.

Meteorologist Jesse Moore at the hurricane center said it was too early to tell whether Hugo would strike the U.S. mainland. He said the storm is expected to be off the southeastern Bahamas by Wednesday and “after that, it’s anybody’s guess.”

Man Removing Antenna Dies

Police said a man was electrocuted in Puerto Rico when he touched a power line while removing a TV antenna from his roof in preparing for the storm.

Five people were reported killed, 80 injured and more than 10,000 homeless Sunday on the French island of Guadeloupe, relief officials said. Corrugated steel roofs were torn off, power lines ripped free and crops destroyed. Two people were killed in Antigua and one in Montserrat, according to Beacon Radio in Anguilla. Amateur radio operators reported at least five deaths in Montserrat, but there was no official confirmation.

Nearly all of Montserrat’s 12,000 residents were homeless and without food or fresh water, said amateur radio operator Stuart Haimes of Queens, N.Y. Schools, hospitals and the police department on the British island suffered serious damage, Haimes said.

Off St. Thomas, charter boat captain O. B. O’Brian told Miami TV station WTVJ that many boats and homes had been damaged. “I’d say the island is pretty well devastated,” he said.

Most of the Virgin Islands’ 106,000 residents live on St. Thomas. On St. Croix, an amateur radio operator said the winds tore off the roofs from up to 75% of the homes.

Stores Heavily Damaged

Officials said stores in the St. Croix town of Christiansted were heavily damaged, and there were reports of looting. National Guard Adjutant Gen. Robert Moorehead said 1,000 people were evacuated to rescue shelters in St. Croix.

Storm watches were in effect for parts of the Dominican Republic, and a hurricane warning was issued for the southern Bahamas, including the Turks and Caicos islands.

Hugo was moving at 10 m.p.h. west-northwest alongside Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth with 3.3 million people. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 75 miles from its center.