Arecibo Observatory 'Still Standing' After Hurricane Maria Ravaged Puerto Rico (LiveScience)

By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer | September 27, 2017 02:57pm ET

Nearly a week after Hurricane Maria pulverized Puerto Rico, staff members at the island's Arecibo Observatory are remaining optimistic as they continue to survey the damage to their enormous radio telescope.

The Arecibo Observatory contains the second-largest radio telescope in the world, and that telescope has been out of service ever since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20. Maria hit the island as a Category 4 hurricane, leaving behind a swath of downed trees, battered buildings and gushing rivers running through the streets.

While Puerto Rico suffered catastrophic damage across the island, the Arecibo Observatory suffered "relatively minor damages," Francisco Córdova, the director of the observatory, said in a Facebook post on Sunday (Sept. 24). [The Arecibo Observatory: Puerto Rico's Giant Radio Telescope in Photos]

Last week, officials reported that a 96-foot (29 meters) line-feed antenna that was suspended from a platform above the telescope's dish had broken off and punctured some of the mesh panels that make up the 1,000-foot (305 m) dish below.
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National Geographic's Nadia Drake, who has been in contact with the observatory and has provided extensive updates via Twitter, reported that "some staff who have lost homes in town are moving on-site" to the facility, which weathered the storm pretty well overall. Drake also reported that the observatory "will likely be serving as a FEMA emergency center," helping out members of the community who lost their homes in the storm.
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more: https://www.livescience.com/60541-arecibo-observatory-still-standing-hurricane-maria.html




Nice to know that this national treasure is relatively unharmed. Included the fifth para to add that the observatory may have a more important role to fill right now.