The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph Wednesday afternoon and was centered about 650 miles southwest of Bermuda, moving north at 8 mph.
It was likely to approach Bermuda late Thursday and then Atlantic Canada late Friday. The US State Department issued an advisory on Tuesday night urging US citizens to “reconsider travel” to Bermuda.
The storm has been blamed for directly causing at least four deaths in its path across the Caribbean, where winds and torrential rains in Puerto Rico left the majority of people in the US territory without power or running water. Hundreds of thousands of people were swept from their homes by mud after what authorities described as “historic” flooding.
Hurricane Fiona is seen in a satellite image at 9:30am. ET on September 21, 2022. NOAA
Power company officials initially said it would take a few days to fully restore power, but then appeared to back down late Tuesday night. As of Wednesday afternoon, three days after Fiona hit the island, about 70 percent of customers were without power, according to government figures.
“Hurricane Fiona has severely impacted electrical infrastructure and generation facilities across the island. We want to make it very clear that restoration and power restoration efforts are ongoing and are being impacted by severe flooding, impassable roads, downed trees, damaged equipment and downed lines .” said Luma, the company that manages the transmission and distribution of electricity.
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluigi said, “I continue to hope that by the end of today, a large portion of the population will have these services.”
Pierluigi tweeted Wednesday afternoon that the federal government had approved a request for a major disaster declaration in response to Fiona. Earlier Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said the request was still under review. President Biden on Sunday approved a hurricane emergency declaration.
Deanne Criswell, head of FEMA, traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to bolster local response efforts.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Health and Human Services also declared a public health emergency on the island and deployed some teams to the island.
The storm killed one man in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, another man in Puerto Rico who was swept away by a swollen river, and two people in the Dominican Republic: one killed by a falling tree and the other by a downed power pole.
Two additional deaths were reported in Puerto Rico as a result of the blackout: A 70-year-old man burned to death after trying to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, and a 78-year-old man police said inhaled toxic gases emitted by his generator.
The hum of generators could be heard across the land as people grew increasingly enraged. Some were still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm five years ago, killing an estimated 2,975 people.
Why does Puerto Rico’s energy grid keep failing? 02:04
Luis Noguera, who was helping clear a landslide in the central mountain town of Cayey, said Maria left him without power for a year. Officials themselves didn’t announce a full resumption of service until 11 months after Maria hit.
“We paid an electrician out of our own pocket to hook us up,” he recalls, adding that he doesn’t think the government will help much again after Fiona.
Long lines were reported at several gas stations across Puerto Rico, and some pulled off a major highway to collect water from a stream.
“We thought we had a bad experience with Maria, but this was worse,” said Gerardo Rodriguez, who lives in the southern coastal city of Salinas.
Parts of the island had received more than 25 inches of rain, and more had fallen on Tuesday.
Hurricane Fiona hits Puerto Rico, leaving most of the island without power or clean water 05:07
By late Tuesday, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 380,000 of the island’s 1.47 million customers. Piped water service was initially interrupted for most users on the island due to power outages and murky water at filtration plants, but 55% had service Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service in San Juan issued a heat warning for several cities because the majority of people on the island of 3.2 million remain without power.
Workers remove fallen trees in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico on September 20, 2022. The island experienced widespread power outages after Hurricane Fiona hit. Jose Jimenez/Getty Images
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.
Many Americans had not heard from family members without power.
Palm Beach County, Florida resident Nancy Valentine told CBS News, “I haven’t been able to talk to my mom and see how she’s doing.”
At Boston’s Logan Airport, those arriving from Puerto Rico told of their fear of drowning in Fiona’s flood waters.
Yolanda Rivera told CBS News, “We stayed in a room in a little corner that was safe, for a whole night with no light or anything. The place was so dark.”
In the Turks and Caicos Islands, officials reported minimal damage and no deaths, despite the eye of the storm passing close to Grand Turk, the small island of the British territory’s capital, on Tuesday morning.
The government had imposed a curfew and urged people to leave flood-prone areas.
“Turks and Caicos has had an amazing experience over the last 24 hours,” said Deputy Governor Anya Williams. “It certainly came with its share of challenges.”
