Puerto Rico Tries to Recover as Burst Dam Imperils Thousands
- Power and phone service out to most of island in Maria’s wake
- People brave flooded streets and dangerous debris to get home
PR Dam Fails
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In San Juan, it was as if Hurricane Maria left everyone to fend for themselves.
Two days after Maria hit, electricity and mobile phone service was nonexistent in the capital and across most of Puerto Rico, which was already buckling under the financial fallout from the nation’s largest municipal insolvency. On Friday, San Juan’s main arteries were cut off by waist-high pools of filthy water and dangerous piles of debris. Desperate motorists searched for dry stretches of asphalt, only to be forced to turn around and drive the wrong way up highway ramps.