or get over 7,000 on this 2019 enclave avenir. about hurricane dorian, which could hit the east coast of florida this weekend as a category 3 hurricane. we will have an update on the storm s trajectory. at 11:00 p.m. but first president trump approved an emergency declaration for the u.s. virgin islands after heavy rains and strong winds from hurricane dorian left parts of the islands without power. the three u.s. virgin islands, st. thomas, st. john and st. croix are east of puerto rico. puerto rico was spared the worst of the hurricane this time. joining us now is someone who has dealt with tropical hurricanes before, especially the government response to hurricanes. joining us now by phone is congresswoman stacy plasket who represents the u.s. virgin islands. and congresswoman, do we find you in st. croix tonight? i am. i m home on st. croix. i ll be heading to the island of
government to prepare for the hurricane. we tried to anticipate that the hurricane would be worse than it was. that s two years ago you re talking about the other devastating hurricanes that hit st. thomas. had st. thomas completely recovered from those two, the two years ago, hurricanes? we really have not. so we will say some devastation two years ago, with irma hitting the island of st. thomas and st. john. and then maria coming less than two weeks later and really wiping out the island of st. croix. so we ve face add situation where we re working with fema, working with hud, several weeks ago hud said it was going to slow down the mitigation funding that we were already anticipating receiving. we re trying to rebuild now from those other hurricanes.
medical services organization is all powered by generators. reporter: puerto rico could see up to six inches and more mountainous areas could see up to ten. heavy rain already affecting parts of the british and u.s. virgin islands which forecasters say could see up to four to ten inches in just a couple of hours time. one resident capturing on camera a bright blue surge of electricity hitting a transformer in the midst of all of the rain. this is not a good place to be. in the next two or three days. the good news is, is this will be a very quick storm. this will come through in six or search hours and be over and we can assess the damage. reporter: tonight, puerto ricans are not taking any chances, many homes and businesses already boarded up, boats removed from the water, drivers are all filling up their tanks. shelters are open on the island ahead of what could be a busy weekend. meanwhile, in florida, major preparations are also under way, with the storm expected to make land
st. john and st. croix last night and we re prepared today. what is your current assessment? how significant will the damage be once the storm passes? the damage assessment right now is primarily to our islands of st. thomas and st. john. would he have island-wide power outage there. the good news is, we have crews still remaining here from irma, maria, that do restoration, and the water and power authority are very prepared to go out and start doing restoration once we have safe conditions. right now, we are still under curfew. tomorrow morning we will reassess the curfew situation. the importance right now is to be safe. critically important. as you know, hurricane dorian was originally supposed to have a bigger impact on puerto rico but the u.s. virgin islands, where you are, bearing at least for now the brunt of the storm. did that make it more difficult for you to prepare? not at all. we always anticipate and chauch, and the storms can change, in any direction, and we are
currently a category one hurricane, hitting the virgin islands and puerto rico. you can follow me on twitter at, and our coverage on cnn continues right now. happening now, breaking news, hurricane impact. dorian batters the u.s. virgin islands. and closes in on puerto rico, as a category one hurricane. with floods and landslides in areas devastated by hurricane maria two years ago. this storm could slam florida by labor day as a powerful category three hurricane. best thing ever. president trump is already battering puerto rico, calling the u.s. territory quote one of the most corrupt places on earth. and saying he is the best thing that s ever happened to the island. he is also hammering fox news. accusing it of promoting democrats, saying, quote, fox isn t working for us anymore. climbing the walls, president