Puerto Rico man dies trying to drive through floodwaters amid heavy rains

SAN JUAN (AP) — A man who tried to drive his car through floodwaters was swept away and killed Monday in Puerto Rico as heavy rains lashed the island, authorities said.

The incident occurred in a heavily flooded area of San Juan, the U.S. territory’s capital, police said in a statement.

In Bayamón, a city southwest of the capital, officials rescued four men and two women who were visiting a waterfall and were swept away by floodwaters, police said.

Flash flood warnings and flood advisories were issued Monday for several towns across Puerto Rico, which has been hit by persistent rain since Friday.

Nearly nine inches (23 centimeters) of rain has fallen in some areas since Friday, according to the National Weather Service in San Juan.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

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John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.