Confirming an earlier projection by Accuweather that showed Hurricane Nate will likely make landfall as a cateogry one storm somewhere between Louisiana and the Florida panhandle on Sunday, the NHC has issued a hurricane warning - the highest-priority of the agency's alert levels - for a broad swath of the Southern US stretching from Grand Isle Louisiana to the Florida-Alabama border.
With just weeks having passed since Hurricane Harvey demolished southern Texas, Hurricane Irma devastated the Florida Keys and Hurricane Maria wiped out Puerto Rico, a new storm, Tropical Storm Nate, has just formed in the Southern Caribbean and looks set to strengthen to a hurricane just before making landfall in the Gulf this weekend.
Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage to Puerto Rico. Drone footage captured the scene in San Juan and Canóvanas on Sept. 21.
Days after Hurricane Maria passed over the island and made its way west toward the Dominican Republican, Puerto Rico is still struggling with the initial response to the storm – rescuing people stranded in remote villages, and moving thousands into government shelters. Meanwhile the island's first responders are making due without electricity, gas or cell phone service after the storm dealt a knockout blow to its infrastructure.
With electricity and cell phone service still offline across most of hurricane-damaged island, NBC reports that a dam in northwest Puerto Rico has failed, causing even more flash flooding and prompting emergency evacuations.
Guajataca Dam operators said it failed at 2:10 pm ET, prompting the NWS to issue a flash flood emergency warning for Isabela and Quebradillas municipalities.
"This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. Busses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can," NWS San Juan said.