Flash Flooding in Puerto Rico, August 30, 2002

Name: Flash Flooding in Puerto Rico, August 30, 2002
Start: 2002-08-30T17:00
End: 2002-08-30T19:00
Location: Puerto Rico

August 30, 2002 · NWS SJU · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

A strong tropical wave caused very heavy rain and strong gusty winds across the northeast sections of Puerto Rico. The hardest hit municipalities were Loiza, Canovanas and Rio Grande.

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $900,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS SJU wrote it up.

A strong tropical wave caused very heavy rain and strong gusty winds across the northeast sections of Puerto Rico. The hardest hit municipalities were Loiza, Canovanas and Rio Grande. In Loiza, about 300 homes were affected by flooding, in Canovanas were about 26 homes and 22 families in Rio Grande. In addition, around 15,000 Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority subscribers were without power. Flooding of streets and low and poor drainage areas occurred across most of northeast Puerto Rico.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS San Juan, PR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 30, 3:00 PM AST, 2 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 30, 3:00 PM AST, 2 hours before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JUAN PR
300 PM AST FRI AUG 30 2002

NO CHANGES TO RECENT SYNOPTIC REASONING AND WILL CONTINUE WITH WET
FORECAST THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING. WAVE RELATED MOISTURE ALREADY
ADVECTING INTO THE LOCAL ISLANDS LATE THIS MORNING WITH CONVECTIVE
COMPLEXES ACROSS THE NE CARIBBEAN AND ADJACENT WATERS ATTM...AND ALL
THIS WEATHER EXPECTED TO GRADUALLY SPREAD WEST AND WEST NORTHWEST
ACROSS US TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY. BEST MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY MAY
OCCUR SATURDAY AND SATURDAY EVENING.

EQUIPMENT: NO PROBLEMS AT THIS TIME.

.SJU...
.PR...NONE.
.VI...NONE.

STRIPLING

WRITTEN TEXT FORECASTS (IN ENGLISH OR SPANISH)...SATELLITE IMAGERY
...DOPPLER RADAR DATA...AND A VIRTUAL LIBRARY OF WEATHER INFORMATION
CAN BE FOUND AT THE NWS SAN JUAN WEB SITE AT:

HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/SJU (ALL LOWER CASE).

Event by event

2 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, San Juan and Vicinity

When: August 30, 5:00 PM AST to 7:00 PM AST
Where: San Juan and Vicinity County, Countywide
Property damage: $200,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Flash Flood, Northeast

When: August 30, 5:00 PM AST to 7:00 PM AST
Where: Northeast County, Countywide
Property damage: $700,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

What these are

Flash Flood: Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Puerto Rico in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Puerto Rico, August 2002

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5313158, 5313159.