Hurricane Ernesto knocked out power to half of Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning as it continues to offload flooding rainful amid strong winds.
The Category 1 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as of 11 a.m. EDT, according to the National Hurricane Center.
More than 600,000 customers in Puerto Rico, almost half on the island, were without power on Wednesday, and the number of outages has since doubled in just a matter of hours.
The US Virgin Islands were almost hit by Ernesto, leaving 46,000 customers without power, which is roughly 92% of the island's tracked customers, said CNN.
Multiple flash flood warnings were in effect Wednesday morning, including for the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, and in the eastern and southern portions of Puerto Rico and its islands of Vieques and Culebra.
Puerto Rico is preparing for life-threatening swells and dangerous rip tides, with Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi organizing the National Guard and warning residents to shelter in their homes.
Public schools have been closed, and approximately 80 shelters have been opened.
Power outages are all too common among Puerto Rican residents, many of whom have witnessed the slow efforts to modernize an electric grid that is still highly vulnerable to natural disasters.
LUMA Energy said it has mobilized crews across the islands to respond to outages. And LUMA's president, Juan Saca, urged people to report blackouts, noting that the utility may not be aware of them all.
"Puerto Rico's electrical system is not sufficiently modernized to detect power outages," Saca said Tuesday, per The Associated Press.
Ernesto is expected to curve gradually to the north to bring it away from the Caribbean and into open Atlantic waters, where it is forecast to strengthen further.
By the end of this week, it could become a powerful Category 3 major hurricane.
Mid-August to about mid-October is known to be hurricane season's most active period; however, the tropical activity in the Atlantic is already pacing above average.
