Hugo Hits Puerto Rico, Heads Northwest

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico--Hurricane Hugo's 125 m.p.h. winds pounded Puerto Rico yesterday after ripping across other islands in the eastern Caribbean, leaving at least 14 people dead and thousands homeless.

The National Weather Service said Hugo, the most powerful storm to hit the region this decade, slammed into the eastern tip of Puerto Rico and skirted the northern coast before roaring northwest toward the Bahamas.

Hugo also threatens the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and civil defense authorities in the Dominican Republic declared a state of emergency yesterday afternoon.

Eastern Airlines spokesperson Karen Ceremsak in Miami said the carrier flew a special Boeing 727 charter to the Dominican resort of Puerto Plata yesterday and returned to Miami with about 135 vacationers.

The storm's winds overturned cars and stripped roofs off houses and office buildings and sent chunks of concrete plunging into streets in the capital city of San Juan, where one-third of the U.S. commonwealth's 3.3 million residents live. Fifty airplanes were reported destroyed at the airport in Isla Verde.

There was widespread damage in San Juan's Condado Beach area, the site of many of the island's large tourist hotels. Shattered glass, strips of roofing and overturned trees littered the streets, and few drivers ventured out in their vehicles.

Hugo cut power and disrupted international communications to the island.

One woman in a San Juan high-rise told a radio station she watched sections of the city darken as the first high winds and heavy rains hit San Juan. Widespread power outages also were reported in the Dominican Republic.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Puerto Rico although one man was electrocuted while trying to remove a television antenna as he prepared for the storm Sunday.

Bands of people, mostly youths, looted storm-damaged shops in San Juan and police patrols were reinforced at the main post office, political party offices and shopping areas.

In a boutique on the ground floor of the two-story building housing The Associated Press bureau in San Juan, young looters defied winds hitting 100 m.p.h. at the peak of the storm and carried out armloads of clothing.

At 3 p.m. EDT, Hugo's center was near latitude 19.2 degrees north and longitude 66.7 west, or about 70 miles northwest of San Juan, said the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fla.

Hugo was moving at 15 m.p.h. to the west-northwest. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 75 miles from its center.

Meteorologist Jesse Moore at the NationalHurricane Center said it was too early to tellwhether Hugo would strike the U.S. mainland. Hesaid the storm was expected to be offsouth-eastern Bahamas by tomorrow and "after that,it's anybody's guess."

Five people were reported killed, 80 injuredand more than 10,000 homeless Sunday on the Frenchisland of Guadeloupe, relief officials said. Twopeople were killed in Antigua, according to BeaconRadio in Anguilla, and there were reports of sixdeaths in Montserrat