Maria’s devastation a ‘historic event’ for Puerto Rico

Stunned search teams fanned out across Puerto Rico on Thursday morning to continue damage assessments following Hurricane Maria’s devastating landfall. The Category 4 storm decimated the U.S. territory’s fragile infrastructure, leaving every residence and business on the island without power. Officials say it could take months to reconnect the electrical grid. Puerto Rico’s emergency management director called the storm a “historic event.” The government’s first priority is to restore communications, which will help with damage assessments. Dozens of towns remain isolated, and officials do not yet know their condition. “Months and months and months and months are going to pass before we can recover from this,” said Felix Delgado, mayor of the northern coastal city of Catano. Officials across the Caribbean have attributed at least 10 deaths to Maria, which slammed into the island of Dominica on Monday. Puerto Rican officials attribute only one death to Maria so far, a man hit by flying debris. Forecasters say Maria is headed for the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Officials in the Dominican Republic say their country escaped widespread damage when Maria roared by Wednesday night.