Puerto Rico Daily SunDespite official reports saying the effects of hurricane Earl were to be intermittent rains and gusts of wind during the morning, with their frequency and intensity increasing during the late afternoon, the fifth event of this year's hurricane season started pounding the island with heavy rains and winds early Monday morning. By noon several branches had fallen over power lines and roads, flash floods in both urban and rural areas, and some 20 people had sought the safety of emergency refuges in the island/municipalities of Vieques and Culebra, Gov. Fortuño informed. Early Monday morning several thousand residents of Río Piedras and Guaynabo woke up to find out they had no electricity in their homes and that they would have to brave a more combative Monday morning commute because several traffic lights at key intersections were out due to the power failure.
PR Daily Sun: The island's close brush with Hurricane Earl Monday demonstrated that the Puerto Rico Electric Energy Authority is not ready for such a challenge, said the industry's powerful union. "The state of abandon and lack of preventive maintenance of the system was apparent with just a few moderate winds," said Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo, president of the Union of Electric and Irrigation Industry Workers. He noted that several sectors were without electric service and several lines were down in the mountain in Barranquitas, Aibonito, Orocovis. He said the following towns were also lacking power service: Guaynabo, Ceiba, Fajardo, Río Grande, Luquillo, and the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra, affecting thousands of PREPA clients.
"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
