Tearing apart roofs and roiling seas that swallowed beachside hotels, Hurricane Luis ravaged two Caribbean islands and brought shrieking winds and torrential rains Wednesday to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Two people died in Puerto Rico and one in Guadeloupe even before the 700-mile-wide maelstrom of wind and rain struck the Caribbean on Tuesday. It is one of the most powerful hurricanes in decades, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph.Luis was slowly moving away from the Caribbean Wednesday, and the National Weather Service downgraded its hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
With the hurricane 40 miles northeast of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands and heading slowly to the northwest, shrieking winds and torrential downpours brought down trees and power lines in Puerto Rico.
Much of San Juan and the eastern portion of the island were without electricity and water Wednesday morning. Thousands of residents had sought refuge in shelters.
No major damage had been reported, but the hurricane's northwest track would bring the center its closest to Puerto Rico late Wednesday morning.
The storm was to pass Puerto Rico by nightfall, bearing rains of up to 10 inches and storm tides of 6-9 feet, and forecasters expected it to head north into the Atlantic and away from the U.S. mainland.
But with Luis approaching, frightened residents of this island of 3.5 million people spoke of the legendary wrath of the Taino Indian god Huracan, from which the English word hurricane is derived.
People knocked the final nails into plywood boards protecting glass windows and did last-minute shopping for provisions.
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rosello was called on to help with the aftermath of Luis in Antigua and its sister island Barbuda, where two hotels were washed away.
Antiguan Prime Minister Lester Bird telephoned Rossello to ask for a mobile hospital. Bird said his islands were "devastated," Rossello said.
Downtown St. John's, the Antiguan capital, looked like a junkyard after Luis roared through Tuesday, ripping off awnings and roofs, tearing down electric power lines and uprooting 50-year-old Royal Palm trees.