By Tuesday afternoon, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), the storm was centered about 50 miles north of North Caicos, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds to expand upwards. up to 150 miles. The storm was moving northwest at about 8 mph.
Turks and Caicos will continue to receive “heavy rainfall” throughout the evening hours with “life-threatening flooding”, the NHC said.
Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic could see another 1 to 2 inches of rain from Fiona, the NHC predicted, bringing the potential for even more flooding. In total, parts of Puerto Rico could receive up to 35 inches of rain from the storm, while parts of the Dominican Republic could see 20 inches.
Fiona was expected to approach Bermuda late Thursday, the NHC said, and is expected to strengthen in the coming days.
“Storms are unpredictable,” Prime Minister Washington Misick said in a statement from London, where he attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “Therefore, you must take every precaution to ensure your safety.”
A man walks along a flooded street in Nagua, Dominican Republic, on September 19, 2022, following the passage of Hurricane Fiona. ERIKA SANTELICES/afp/AFP/Getty Images
Fiona was forecast to weaken before making landfall in eastern Canada over the weekend. It was not expected to threaten the US mainland.
Fiona caused a blackout when it hit the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico on Sunday, the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which hit the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.
By Tuesday morning, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 300,000 of the island’s 1.47 million customers. Power was also restored at the San Jorge Children’s and Women’s Hospital in San Juan on Tuesday afternoon, Puerto Rico’s power distribution company Luma said.
Puerto Rico’s governor warned it could take days to restore power to everyone.
Water service was cut off to more than 760,000 customers – two-thirds of the total on the island – due to cloudy water in filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.
The storm is responsible for at least two deaths in Puerto Rico. A 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio. Another death was linked to a power outage — a 70-year-old man burned to death after trying to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.
In the Dominican Republic, authorities also reported two deaths: a 68-year-old man who was hit by a falling tree and an 18-year-old girl who was hit by a falling power pole while riding a motorcycle. The storm forced more than 1,550 people to seek safety in government shelters and left more than 406,500 homes without power.
The typhoon left many highways blocked and a tourist pier in the town of Miches was severely damaged by high waves. At least four international airports were closed, officials said.
Dominican President Luis Abider said authorities would need several days to assess the storm’s effects.
In the mountain town of Cayey in central Puerto Rico, where the Plato River burst its banks and the brown torrent of water engulfed cars and homes, overturned drawers, beds and large refrigerators strewn across people’s yards on Tuesday.
“Puerto Rico is not prepared for this,” said Mariangy Hernández, a 48-year-old housewife, who said she doubted the government would help her community of about 300 people in the long term, despite ongoing efforts to clear the streets and electricity is restored. “This is only for a few days and later they forget about us.”
She and her husband were stuck in line waiting for the National Guard to clear a landslide in their hilly neighborhood.
“Is it open? Is it open?” asked a driver, worried that the road might be completely closed.
Other drivers asked the National Guard if they could stop by their homes to help cut down trees or clean up clumps of mud and debris.
Hurricane Fiona hits Puerto Rico, leaving most of the island without power or clean water 05:07
Michelle Carlo, a medical adviser for Direct Relief in Puerto Rico, told CBS News on Tuesday that conditions on the island were “remarkably similar” to 2017, when Hurricane Maria caused nearly 3,000 deaths.
“Despite the fact that Fiona was only categorized as a Category 1 hurricane, the water damage in Puerto Rico was in some places as bad or even worse than when Maria hit us five years ago,” Carlo said.
Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island are still covered in blue tarps.
National Guard Brigadier General. General Narciso Cruz described the resulting floods as historic.
“There were communities that flooded in the storm that didn’t flood under Maria,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Cruz said 670 people were rescued in Puerto Rico, including 19 people in a nursing home in the northern mountain town of Cayey that was in danger of collapsing.
“Rivers burst their banks and covered communities,” he said.
Some were rescued via kayaks and boats, while others were nestled into the huge shovel of an excavator and carried to higher ground.
He expresses his regret that some refused to leave their homes, adding that he understands them.
“It’s human nature,” he said. “But when they saw that their lives were in danger, they agreed to leave.”
A member of the Puerto Rico National Guard wades through water looking for people in need of rescue from flooded streets in the wake of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, September 19, 2022. Reuters/Ricardo Arduengo
Jeannette Soto, a 34-year-old manicurist, was worried it would take too long for crews to restore power because a landslide swept away the neighborhood’s main light fixture.
“This is the first time this has happened,” he said of the landslides. “We didn’t think the amount of rain would be this big.”
Governor Pedro Pierluisi called for a major disaster declaration on Tuesday and said it would be at least a week before authorities had an estimate of the damage caused by Fiona.
He said the damage caused by the rain was “catastrophic”, especially in the central, southern and southeastern parts of the island.
“The effects caused by the hurricane were devastating for many people,” he said.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to bolster local response efforts.
On Tuesday afternoon, US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico. This comes after President Biden issued an emergency declaration on Monday.
HHS has deployed 25 personnel to the island so far, the agency said in a news release.
“We will do everything we can to help officials in Puerto Rico respond to the effects of Hurricane Fiona,” Becerra said in a statement. “We are working closely with regional health authorities and our federal partners and stand ready to provide additional public health and medical support.”
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he will push for the federal government to cover 100 percent of disaster response costs — instead of the usual 75 percent — as part of a disaster emergency declaration.
“We need to make sure that this time, Puerto Rico has absolutely everything they need, as soon as possible, for as long as they need it,” he said.
On Hurricane Maria’s fifth anniversary, Puerto Rico still faces power challenges 08:03
