About twenty flights between Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands are canceled due to Hurricane Erin

San Juan.- About twenty flights between Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands were canceled this Saturday due to weather conditions caused by the near passage of Hurricane Erin, category 5. Aerostar, the company that operates the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) in Puerto Rico, announced on its social media that the flights were destined for the islands of Santa Cruz, Tortola, San Tomas, and Vieques.

The canceled flights are operated by the airlines CapeAir, Intercaribbean, and Jet Blue.

“Aerostar recommends that passengers on these and all flights today and tomorrow stay in continuous contact with their respective airlines,” the company wrote on its social media. Erin rapidly intensified this Saturday to become a “catastrophic” Category 5 hurricane, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour (257 kilometers per hour), announced the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC). According to the forecast track, the center of the hurricane is expected to move just north of the Northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico during the weekend. In Puerto Rico, authorities closed numerous beaches and six ports this Saturday, and inspected flood control stations, among other measures, due to the intense rains and expected waves.

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A swell of between 8 and 12 feet high (2.4 and 3.6 meters) is expected, along with rainfall accumulations of 2 to 4 inches (between 50 and 100 millimeters), which could locally reach 6 inches (150 millimeters). This can cause flash, urban, and mudslides, so the National Weather Service in San Juan maintains a flood watch in effect until Monday.