How Hurricane Maria Destroyed Puerto Rico's San Juan Airport
Puerto Rico is reeling from the utter destruction that Hurricane Maria dealt to the Caribbean island, and one of the casualties of the natural disaster was San Juan Luis Muñoz Marin Airport (SJU) which appears to have been significantly damaged. SJU is the island's main international airport and is served by all of the large US carriers including American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United.
Radio Isla 1320 shared four images from the airport revealing a flooded terminal and a runway full of debris — with entire window panes knocked out of their frames.
Another video shared yesterday shows the extent to which the terminal was flooded. There were huge pools of water everywhere caused by extensive leaking through the roof — which can be seen in the video.
Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG), San Juan's smaller airport, got hit hard as well, with private aircraft ripped apart and flipped over from Maria's 155 mph winds.
Although, SJU did share a picture of a rescue helicopter landing at the airport with a caption stating that the the runways could handle planes landing and taking off.
SJU tweeted earlier today that the airport is ready to receive military and rescue operations and that airlines will be able to operate on Friday, although the airport will have no air conditioning due to lack of power.
Puerto Rico closed all three of its international airports Tuesday in preparation of Hurricane Maria making landfall. The major airlines have issued travel waivers for those affected by the Category 4 storm.
Southwest told us that it has cancelled service through Friday and Delta announced that it will resume flights on Saturday. For those hoping to fly out of San Juan, it is recommended that you check with your airline before heading to the airport. Maria is one of the worst storms Puerto Rico has ever seen and the entire US territory is currently without electricity.
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