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Hurricane Ernesto SPOTREP #1

August 15, 2024

Healthcare Ready is MONITORING for this event. We are monitoring potential concerns for supply chain disruptions and impacts on healthcare services on our Alert Hub.

Contents

• Situation Overview and Key Updates
• Potential Impacts to Health Care and Supply Chain

Situation Overview and Key Updates

• Situation Overview
  • As of August 15, Hurricane Ernesto is expected to approach Bermuda late Friday and into the weekend.
    • While Hurricane Ernesto is not expected to directly impact the US, east coast states could experience life-threatening surf and rip currents so beach goers should be aware of that risk.
  • On August 14, Ernesto strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane while passing over Puerto Rico and USVI. Ernesto generated significant rainfall over Puerto Rico and USVI creating flash flooding.
• Power
  • Puerto Rico
    • On August 14, Governor Pierluisi (Puerto Rico) indicated that more than 700,000 customers had no power and 23 hospitals are operating on generators.
    • On August 14, LUMA stated that they are prioritizing service restoration to critical infrastructure including hospitals, water and sewer facilities, and other essential services.
      • LUMA’s outage map of Puerto Rico can be found here.
  • USVI
    • On August 14, the Water and Power Authority in St. Croix stated that the Estate Richmond Power Plant was impacted by Ernesto, leading to an island-wide outage. St. John also experienced an island-wide outage.
    • Based on the PowerOutage map, over 50,000 customers are without power on the Virgin Islands.
• Emergency Declarations
  • On August 13, President Biden declared that an emergency exists in Puerto Rico. This authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.

Potential Impacts to Health Care and Supply Chain

• As of August 15, there are more than 120,000 people are without water and 375 people are in shelters, according to the Puerto Rico Emergency Portal System.
  • A list of open shelters in Puerto Rico can be found here.
• As of August 15, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for Aguadilla, Isabela, and the San Sebastian region in Puerto Rico. This could impact the distribution of supplies and medical services however major supply chain impacts are not to be expected.

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