Toll Rises as Hurricane Aims at U.S. : Puerto Rico, Resort Islands Devastated; As Many as 25 Die

Hurricane Hugo sliced through the northern Caribbean like a machete Tuesday, its toll mounting to as many as 25 dead, hundreds injured and thousands homeless. It took a wobbly aim at the eastern United States, threatening the coast between Florida and North Carolina.

In Puerto Rico, where humble homes were flattened, resort hotels were damaged and most essential services were cut off, there was relief that Hugo’s toll had climbed no higher and that its destruction was no worse. Bad as the damage was, Puerto Rican civil defense officials counted only two dead. The Red Cross counted 10 more.

But rescuers found 13 additional deaths and a nightmare of destruction on Caribbean islands stretching from Guadeloupe to the Bahamas. Some buildings had simply disappeared. Others were in splinters. Still others were badly damaged. Looting was widespread. Estimates of the homeless ranged to more than 50,000 persons, including entire families left destitute.

By evening, Hugo had cut its way to within 185 miles of Grand Turk Island in the southern Bahamas. The eye of the hurricane was near latitude 23.8 degrees north and longitude 69.5 west. That put it east northeast of the Bahamas. Its winds blew at 105 m.p.h. The storm moved at 12 m.p.h. to the northwest, on its unsure course toward the United States.

Ships steamed out of its way, and airlines suspended Caribbean flights. NASA officials said they would wait until today to decide whether to tuck the space shuttle Atlantis into a shelter. Atlantis is scheduled for a launch on Oct. 12. The space agency also prepared to take a communications satellite from its perch aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket should Hugo choose Florida for a landfall.

Launch Postponed

The Air Force postponed launching the rocket from Friday until Sunday.

Up the southeastern coast of the United States, residents began taking notice and planning evacuations, should they become necessary. Forecasters warned that Hugo was the region’s strongest storm since Hurricane David, which killed 1,200 people in Florida and the Caribbean in 1979. The forecasters said Hugo could strike anywhere in Florida or Georgia--or North or South Carolina.

Navy and Air Force bases along the East Coast were ordered to prepare to move their aircraft inland and to send ships out to sea within the next 24 hours if the storm continues on its present course.

In Puerto Rico, Elizabeth Rivera, an official at the civil defense office in San Juan, said Hugo had cut off gas and water to a half million people in the Greater San Juan area as it clipped the northern edge of the island. She said there was scattered telephone service on the island, but that it was hard to call out to anywhere else.

The hurricane overturned cars, peeled roofs off houses and office buildings, hurled chunks of concrete into the street and wrecked 50 airplanes at Isla Verde airport. Homes were destroyed. Boats were thrown onto dry land. Trees were uprooted. Trash cans were strewn as far as anyone could see.

But Rivera said only two people died--while they tried to remove a TV antenna Sunday so the storm would not blow it away. The American Red Cross told the Associated Press there were reports of 10 other deaths and 100 injuries on the island.

“Thank God, things weren’t worse,” Rivera said. “We have been extremely lucky so far. Some villages--particularly on the northeast coast--have reported up to 80% of their structures destroyed, but there are no deaths (in the villages).”

A spokesman for Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon said: “We are relieved that it was short and that it did not cross the island. It was surprising that the island was not affected in proportion to the phenomenon.” He attributed the low toll to a hard and extensive effort to warn residents.

Hernandez-Colon said that 55 of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities were hit by the storm. Of the total homeless, he said 27,000 had been housed in shelters. He said he would ask President Bush today to declare Puerto Rico a disaster area to make it eligible for assistance from the federal government.

Puerto Rican officials said damage would total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The governor said there was no estimate of when the Port of San Juan would reopen. He said some schools might resume classes today--but that other services such as banks and gasoline stations probably would stay closed.

Forty businesses in San Juan reported looting, police spokesman Tony Santiago said. He said much of it occurred at the height of the storm. Police arrested 30 people, and National Guardsmen patrolled the streets. Looting was reported on other islands, as well, including St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

On St. Thomas, it was reported that much of the looting also had come during the storm--by knife-wielding mobs. Ham radio operators said law enforcement had collapsed in St. Croix. They said they had a report that National Guardsmen and police had joined in the looting and that residents were requesting federal troops.

Prisoners Escape

The radio operators said they were told that prisoners had escaped from jail, probably in Christiansted, and were roaming the streets.

U.S. military installations were damaged throughout the Caribbean.

Hardest hit was Roosevelt Roads Naval Station on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. All ships at the base were sent to sea to ride out the storm. Had Hugo struck a week earlier, however, it would have wreaked havoc with a major exercise involving 28 ships that included an aircraft carrier.

Base Buildings Damaged

The hurricane damaged nearly every building at the base, said Cmdr. Steve Burnett at Atlantic Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, Va. He said the electrical system at Roosevelt Roads was virtually wiped out and telephone lines, antennas and other communications gear had suffered severe damage.

Burnett said all 5,000 servicemen and dependents at the base were safe.

On the island of Antigua, Hugo damaged an Air Force satellite tracking station. Officials said the damage might cause a delay in the launch of Atlantis, scheduled three weeks from now. The shuttle is set to carry a nuclear-powered probe, called Galileo, into space. The Antigua station gathers electronic signals from rockets during liftoff in Florida.

It ensures that they are destroyed if they stray off course.

Residents across virtually all of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, reported damage.

Obstacle Courses

Street lights and stop lights were out. Roadways became obstacle courses, littered with downed trees and fallen tree limbs. Live power lines snaked across traffic lanes.

At Monica Hoffman Bynum’s high-rise in the fashionable Condado Beach district, four windows were blown out of her 11th floor apartment. Rain pelted through, she said, and her floors filled with two inches of water. Outside, she said, mud turned the Atlantic from white to brown.

“The breakage on the oceanfront was hair-raising,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it--all the flying debris, things that hadn’t been tied down.” In the lobby of her building the windows became covered with sand. “It’s an inch thick on the vertical glass, like it was glued on.”

Augustine Cavallaro, station manager at WOSO in San Juan, said the hurricane forced his station off the air for three hours. A studio ceiling caved in. “It was like a lake in here,” he said. “Now it’s more of a swamp. . . .

‘Every Tree Down’

“The hurricane actually came ashore at Ceiba where Roosevelt Roads is,” Cavallaro said. “They took very heavy damage in that area. Any house that was wood, anything that wasn’t concrete, was torn apart almost without exception. In some areas, every single tree is down. There are at least 30 to 40 boats lost in San Juan Bay.

“Large communities are still isolated. No one has reached them yet.”

Siva Andrews lives in an oceanfront home. The radio advised her to seek shelter; but the nearest shelter was at Llorens Torres, a public housing project notorious for its crime rate.

“I thought it was more dangerous for me to go there than stay here,” she said.

So she waited Hugo out, moving from room to room. A window blew out. She tried to use a surfboard to plug the hole. Nothing worked.

“We’re lucky to be alive,” she said.

Can’t Find Water

Businessman Jorge Miranda tried to return to work in the Alto Rey financial district. “I can’t even shower,” he said. “I tried to go over to the Caribe Hilton to use one of their showers but even they have no water.”

In the small town of Farjardo, about 60 miles east of San Juan at the eastern tip of Puerto Rico, officials reported downed utility lines, uprooted trees and buckled streets--but no deaths.

“My wife and I aren’t religious but we prayed a lot when Hugo hit,” said Armando Perez, 29, a resident of Farjardo. “Our son (Armando Jr., 5) was more calm than we were. My wife (Isela) was screaming, and I was shouting, trying to calm her down.

“The kid just looked at us as if to say, ‘What’s all the fuss?’ ”

Additional Victims

In addition to the deaths in Puerto Rico, victims of Hugo’s wrath were found on other Caribbean islands.

--The U.S. Consulate on the French island of Guadeloupe said five persons died when Hugo hit, 100 were injured and about 12,000 were left homeless. Seventy percent of the roads on the island were declared useless because of flooding. In Paris, the Defense Ministry assigned 3,000 soldiers to help repair damage.

--State-owned television in Trinidad said six persons died on the British island of Montserrat. Its airport was destroyed, the report said, and scores were hurt. More than 10,000 persons were left homeless. Ham radio operators said almost all property was damaged.

Britain said it would provide $1.57 million in emergency aid.

--Two deaths were reported on the British island of Antigua. Deputy Prime Minister Lester Bird estimated damage at $650 million.

Roofs Torn Off

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hugo tore the roofs off 75% of the homes on St. Thomas and St. Croix, an amateur radio operator reported. Those two islands are where most of territory’s 106,000 residents live.

Two occupied sailboats were reported missing off the British Virgin Islands.

Ham radio operators on the island of Nevis said 80% of its homes were destroyed, including homes belonging to its premier and several other government ministers.

The hospital on Nevis, as well as its theater, school for the blind, police station and prison were severly damaged, the radio operators said. They said the entire electrical system on Nevis was wiped out.

Other islands that sustained heavy damage included St. Kitts, Anguilla, Dominica, St. Margin, Saba and St. Eustatius.

This story was reported by staff writers Bob Secter and Marita Hernandez in San Juan; Barry Bearak and Anna Virtue in Miami; John Broder and Melissa Healy in Washington and George Ramos and John Lee in Los Angeles. It was written by Richard E. Meyer in Los Angeles.

GLOBAL WARMING--Hugo is a harbinger of the intense storms that may come with climatic changes. Page 16