Thousands Without Power As Hurricane Ernesto Hits Puerto Rico

Tropical Storm Ernesto intensified into a hurricane Wednesday as it moved over the Atlantic on its approach to Puerto Rico, where schools and offices shut down as the Caribbean island was hit by torrential rain.

The Category 1 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as of 11 a.m. EDT, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its center was about 175 miles northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning after passing over the Virgin Islands on Tuesday.

Strong winds extend far from its center and have gusted in excess of 74 mph – hurricane-strength – in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands since before it became a hurricane.

As a result, more than 700,000 customers in Puerto Rico – half of all customers on the island – were without power Wednesday, according to LUMA Energy, the private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico. The number of outages doubled in just a few hours Wednesday morning, CNN reports.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi urged people to be indoors by Tuesday evening as forecasts warned that as much as 10 inches of rain could hit the southeast of the island, with possible landslides and widespread flooding. The storm was about 85 miles north of the capital, San Juan, early Wednesday.