Phones Down, Power Out in Puerto Rico
CHURCH: The death toll from last week's earthquake near Mexico City has risen to 319 people. And hope for finding more survivors beneath that rubble is starting to fade now. Several aftershocks have rattled Mexico in the past few day, including a 5.7 magnitude tremor early Sunday.</s>HOWELL: It's a deadly earthquake. Also Sunday, the body of an adult woman was recovered from a collapsed school in Mexico City. 19 children and seven adults were killed at that school alone. Now to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Most areas there still don't have rung water, still don't have power at this point. This after the Hurricane Maria tore through that region of this U.S. commonwealth last week.</s>CHURCH: Not only that, many residents having a hard time reaching their loved ones because most of the cell phone towers aren't working. We get the latest now from CNN's Leyla Santiago.</s>LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From above, the images tell the story of Maria's destruction. But on the ground, the faces tell the story of its desperation, as many on this island of 3.5 million people struggle to reach their loved ones.</s>JOSE FLORES, PUERTO RICO RESIDENT: This is the only place where we can get signal.</s>SANTIAGO: On this highway overpass, dozens pull over, hoping that this spot is the one to reunite family, if only by voice. Jose Flores drove for hours to get here, to get to cell service, to get to tell his daughter in Florida one thing.</s>FLORES: So I'll let my family know that we're fine.</s>SANTIAGO: For others, borrowed satellite phones are their last hope. (on camera): People are trying anything they can to reach out. This note, handwritten, was passed along to our photographer in hopes that it would reach a loved one. It says, among other things, "Tony OK. Tony at Frank's house. And love you all."</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, thank you, thank you.</s>SANTIAGO (voice-over): Later that day, we were able to get a call out to his girlfriend in New York.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So it was just such a relief. Neither I nor his family has slept all week just worrying about him.</s>SANTIAGO: An FCC report found 96 percent of cell towers in Puerto Rico are not working. The government here says it's trying to figure out which towers need generators and fuel to start working again. A small sign of hope on this island with so much to rebuild. For many year, the first chance to talk is the first step to recovery. Leyla Santiago, CNN, San Juan, Puerto Rico.</s>CHURCH: Well, Maria is a grim memory for people in the Caribbean. But the storm isn't completely over. Our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us with the latest. Derek, you're just back from the region, from Puerto Rico.</s>HOWELL: A lot of destruction there.</s>DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we saw it firsthand. It really is an ongoing humanitarian crisis. No water, no electricity. And no food for many. So you can imagine as the days and months go on, stresses will get worse for the people down there, unfortunately. All right. Let's talk about the details. Because things have changed. Unfortunately, it appears as if this storm is going through a weakening stage, still churning across the Atlantic. This is a category 1. It was a category 2 about 12 hours ago. So some weakening taking place. This is all thanks to the colder waters that were kind of mixed up in the Atlantic Ocean from Hurricane Jose, believe it or not. This is interesting, because now the outer edges of Hurricane Maria will actually scrape the east coast of the United States. Right along the Cape Hatteras, specifically the Outer Banks of North Carolina. That's where we have our shading of yellow. Kill devils hill into Cape Hatteras and the nags head region. Even though the storm is going to stay well east of a landfall from the United States, the outer rain bands expand at least 200 to 300 kilometers away from the center of the storm. That's where we find some of the tropical storm-force winds. So you can see as we time this thing out by midday on Wednesday, that some of that dark shading of red and purple indicating winds in excess of 70 to 80 miles per hour that is tropical storm-force. Will reach, again, the coastline of North Carolina. So we're going to keep a very close eye on any shift to the west, obviously, will mean that more winds will move inland. Well, the other threats here would be large waves along the shoreline, creating dangerous rip currents. In fact, some of the open ocean swells measuring six to nine meters that will equate to at least seven to 10-foot waves along the beach line. A rip current threat stretching from Florida to Cape Cod. Most of the rainfall will stay offshore. The chances of this bringing flooding rain to the east coast of the United States very slim. But, of course, the ongoing threat still looms across western Puerto Rico, where they have flash flood warnings. We've been talking about the dam that overflowed its bank, the Quajataca Dam in northwestern Puerto Rico. Any additional rainfall will put more stresses on that dam which is a concern for hundreds of thousands of people who live close to it.</s>CHURCH: It is a real worry.</s>VAN DAM: It is.</s>HOWELL: Derek, thank you. And welcome back.</s>VAN DAM: Thank you very much.</s>HOWELL: Still ahead on NEWSROOM this hour, the president's latest adversary is football, the National Football League and players who protest during the national anthem.</s>CHURCH: How fans are reacting. We'll have that for you when we come back. Stay with us.