Several citizens reported in the afternoon of today, Sunday, through social networks a circulation of what appears to be a tornado in the municipality of Arecibo.
In the videos you can see circulation of air that caused damage and left a lot of debris.
The Municipal Emergency Management Office confirmed to the press that the phenomenon occurred around 3:00 in the afternoon in the Víctor Rojas 2 community.
The strong winds caused the fall of the power lines and a pole in the taxiways. Also, due to long-lasting winds, a residence in the area was left without a roof.
So far no people have been reported injured by the tornado.
For his part, the Municipal Police Commissioner, Leslie Zeno, estimated that a waterspout made landfall in the area of the Víctor Rojas de Arecibo community.
“It resulted in damage to the roof of the Thermo King factory. Similarly, several poles and power lines were found on the ground. So far we have no complaints in which damage to people is reported, however, there are several houses and vehicles that were affected,” Zeno reported through written statements.
Likewise, the official urged as a preventive measure to keep some taxiways closed.
Meanwhile, the Fire Department notified through its Twitter account that after the detachment of the roof of the Thermo King factory, they ordered its eviction due to a “strong smell of gas.”
The Police Bureau Command in Arecibo made a preliminary report on the damage caused by the tornado, as well as the heavy rains and thunderstorms.
Among them are the fall of the power lines on PR-129 in front of the Driver Services Center (Cesco), on Calle 7 of the Villa Serena urbanization and in the Víctor Rojas community.
The mayor of Arecibo, Carlos “Tito” Ramírez Irizarry told Telenoticias that the damage caused by the tornado “could be millions of dollars.”
“Emergency Management has to make an estimate of the damage because not only in the factory (Thermo King), we also have damage in the residences of (the community) Víctor Rojas 2, we have electrical poles on the ground, wiring, damage to the properties, here we have substantial damage (in the area of the factory) that I would say above, as I saw when we put the drone over the factory… the damage here could be millions of dollars,” said the president.
In the same way, he indicated that “when (the Bureau of) Firefighters and (the Office of) Municipal Emergency Management make their report, I understand that they are going to report millions in damages.”
At the same time, Ramírez Irizarry called on citizens not to turn on electric generators because there are power lines on the ground and recommended “not to leave their homes.”
Minutes later, the municipal president expressed in written statements that they continue to assess the damage.
“At the moment, damage is reported to 26 homes, 8 motor vehicles and 5 poles in the ground. In addition, damage is reported to the fence between the school and the park located in the community. The estimated damage to the Thermo King factory is believed to be they are millionaires,” explained Ramírez Irizarry.
“This was a tornado”
Meanwhile, the SNM’s emergency alert coordinator, Ernesto Morales, reported that “this was a tornado.”
“This is a very unusual event, normally we hear of waterspouts, but this was a tornado, which came out on land and remained for about five minutes affecting and creating quite a few losses… the conditions have diminished… the conditions are already they do not favor more tornadoes to develop,” Morales told the press.
He added that tomorrow they will be issuing an official report of a “possible EF-1.”
“The classification as hurricanes has its category and (is measured) by the Fujita scale that goes from zero to five. Normally, in Puerto Rico what happens are zero-class tornadoes, but this one is due to the damage and the time that had created losses… possibly we have to be carrying out an EF-1”, explained the expert.
The Fujita scale (EF, for its acronym in English) is used to classify the strength of a tornado’s winds according to the damage they cause.
Earlier, the National Meteorological Service (SNM) could not confirm that a tornado had occurred.
“Today several relatively strong thunderstorms have been forming in the waters, mostly in the Atlantic, which are prone to generating waterspouts in the water. Several of these thunderstorms have been quite close in coastal waters in northern Puerto Rico and one of them is this thunderstorm that has been quite active.
Video of the damages:
Daños en Arecibo por paso de tornado. Video cerca de la fábrica Thermoking y el Coliseo Petaca Iguina. Video enviado por Joseph Cruz. pic.twitter.com/iO4XDWzxyP
— Deborah Martorell (@DeborahTiempo) May 1, 2022
