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Hurricane Irene Causes Widespread Damage In Puerto Rico

MIAMI (CBS4) – President Barack Obama has signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Irene.

The declaration means federal disaster assistance will be made available to the U.S. commonwealth which suffered widespread damage from the storm but no reported deaths.

Irene, the first hurricane of the Atlantic storm season, pummeled Puerto Rico Monday with 75 mile per hour winds and steady rainfall.

The National Hurricane Center said there is widespread tree and power line damage on the island. More than 800,000 homes are without power and roughly 28-percent of the island is without running water, according to Emergency Operations Director Mauricio Rivera. In addition, he said, the island of Vieques remains completely without power.

Nearly 800 people were in shelters during the storm, but no injuries had been reported.

Hurricane Irene also churned just north of the Dominican Republic early Tuesday, lashing the Caribbean nation with 100 mph winds and heavy rain, the National Hurricane Center said.

Hundreds of people were displaced by flooding in the Dominican Republic, forced to take refuge in churches, schools and relatives' homes. Electricity also was cut in some areas.

"Everything filled with water, there was just water everywhere," said Maria Altagracia Fernandez, who spent Monday night sleeping on the floor with her five children and about 100 other people at a shelter in the fishing town of Boba, 135 miles northeast of Santo Domingo.

Irene was forecast to pass over or near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas by Tuesday night and be near the central Bahamas early Wednesday.

Forecasters said the hurricane could grow to a monstrous Category 4 storm with winds of more than 131 mph before it's predicted to come ashore this weekend on the U.S. mainland. The last hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. was Ike, which pounded Texas in 2008.

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