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Hurricane Fiona It made landfall in the Dominican Republic early Monday after sweeping Puerto Rico with torrential rains, life-threatening floods and island-wide power outages.
The National Hurricane Center said the Category 1 storm came ashore near Boca de Yuma at 3:30 a.m. with maximum winds of 90 mph.
As the storm slowly moves to the northwest, heavy rain is still falling on Puerto Rico, where more than 1.4 million people are without power.
So far, at least one death has been reported in the hard-hit city of Basse-Terre, the capital of the French province of Guadeloupe, and the deputy head of the region’s environment agency. Sunday said.
The hurricane made landfall on Puerto Rico’s southwest coast Sunday afternoon, making landfall on the island with strong winds of up to 75 mph Bringing between 6 and 24 inches of rain to some areas by the end of the day National Weather Service.
Fiona will continue to bomb Puerto Rico and the eastern parts of the Dominican Republic through Monday. Eastern regions of the Dominican Republic may also experience flooding as well as mudslides and landslides in higher areas, according to the Hurricane Center. Fiona can bring a total of up to 30 inches of rain to Puerto Rico and up to 12 inches to the east and north of the Dominican Republic.
The hurricane is expected to increase in strength once it passes over the Dominican Republic, and is expected to move toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas on Monday and Tuesday, according to the State Department. National Hurricane Center. The Turks and Caicos Islands are under a hurricane warning, while the Southern Bahamas are under a tropical storm watch.
It could take days before power is restored, LUMA Energy, Puerto Rico’s major power utility, said in a statement Sunday, adding that “numerous transmission line outages” are contributing to the blackout. Governor Pedro Pierluisi said in a Facebook post that the process would be “gradual”.
Location PowerOutage.us It reported that the entire island was without power, early Monday morning, adding that LUMA had “reactivated some circuits, but there is limited information, and no figures on how many customers have been restored.”
Power outages have become a familiar crisis for many who live in Puerto Rico. Just five months ago, residents suffered Power outages across the island After a fire broke out in a power plant.
Some parts of the island still bear the scars of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico nearly five years ago. After Hurricane Maria Inflicted huge damage As for the territory’s infrastructure, it took nearly a year to restore power across the island.
Samuel Rivera and his mother, Lourdes Rodriguez, lived without electricity for about a year after hitting Maria, Rivera told CNN reporter Lila Santiago. On Sunday morning, they lost power again, raising concerns similar to those they had five years ago.
They said they were also concerned that a nearby river could overflow and that trees around their home might be scattered by high winds.
With Hurricane Fiona making landfall on Sunday, most of Puerto Rico was under flash flood warning in anticipation of heavy rain. The San Juan National Weather Service has warned of “catastrophic” life-threatening flood conditions.
One of the videos of dangerous floods shows the water rushing easily clear the bridge, carrying its structure downstream. Another film by Samuel de Jesus depicts a scene in Arecibo where rain falls in sheets, adding to the fast-moving water that overtakes large construction vehicles and entire trees.
Several rivers on the eastern side of the island were in stages from moderate to major flooding on Sunday afternoon, including a southeastern river that rose more than 12 feet in less than 7 hours. By Sunday night, the National Weather Service had also issued flood warnings for southern parts of central Puerto Rico.
In response to the dangers facing Puerto Rico, President Joe Biden approved a declaration of emergency early Sunday to provide federal assistance to disaster relief efforts.
Ann Pink, the agency’s associate director for response and recovery, told CNN that more than 300 FEMA emergency workers were on the ground responding to the crisis.
“Our hearts are to the residents who are once again going through another catastrophic event five years later,” Pink said, referring to the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria. This time, she said, FEMA is planning to implement the lessons learned from the 2017 crisis.
“We were more prepared. We have four warehouses now strategically located across the island, which include goods, and a significantly larger supply than in the past.
“We are there proactively – and before any storm – to make sure we coordinate. And all the planning efforts we do during those blue sky days when it rains can be capitalized on.”
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