Hurricane Fiona made landfall in the Dominican Republic on Monday after destroying Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure and causing ‘catastrophic’ flooding and landslides there.
The Dominican Republic, northern Haiti, and the Turks and Caicos Islands were all expected to be hit by Fiona early on Monday along with the possibility of significant rainfall. On Tuesday, it may pose a hazard to the extreme southern part of the Bahamas.
Both the Turks and Caicos Islands as well as the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic, from Cabo Caucedo to Cabo Frances Viejo, were under hurricane warnings.
No fatalities have been recorded in Puerto Rico, although the island is thought to have sustained significant damage on Sunday afternoon.
The hurricane was still expected to bring heavy rain on Puerto Rico on Monday, but officials in the U.S. territory warned it was too early to evaluate the damage. The eastern and southern parts of Puerto Rico were expected to get up to 30 inches.
A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Juan, Ernesto Morales, said: “It’s vital people recognize that this is not over.”
He said that flooding on the island had reached “record levels,” with hundreds of people being evacuated or saved.
The destruction we are seeing is devastating, according to Governor Pedro Pierluisi.
In the south of Puerto Rico, brown water flooded houses, streets, and even an airport runway.
As Fiona ripped up asphalt from roadways and washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that authorities claim was built by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017 as a Category 5 storm, roads were converted into roaring streams.
Nelson Cirino’s house in the northern seaside hamlet of Loiza had its roof torn off by the storm as well.
He claimed, “I was asleep and noticed when the corrugated metal fell off,” as he watched the rain soak his possession.
In her village of Toa Alta, according to Ada Vivian Román, a 21-year-old photography student, the storm toppled trees and fences.
It’s a fairly slow-moving storm, so I’m really quite nervous, she added.
She said that she is concerned about whether the means of public transportation she uses to get to her work at a public relations firm would still be in service when she has to return to the office.
However, she acknowledged that she was fortunate compared to other families, some of whom were essentially losing their houses to rising water.
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Fiona had a center 50 miles southeast of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and had top sustained winds of 85 mph on Sunday night. It was traveling 9 mph towards the northwest.
It occurred on the same day as Hurricane Hugo, a Category 3 hurricane that struck the island in 1989.
Many people questioned when electricity would be restored as officials continued to survey the damage caused by Fiona.
Tomás Rivera, a co-owner of a hotel in El Combate, a seaside community in the southwest, stated, “That’s definitely the greatest damage there is.”
Given how poorly the government reacted to Hurricane Maria, Rivera said his staff transported bedridden family members to the hotel where he had stocked up on fuel, gasoline, food, water, and ice.
The U.S. territory was put under a state of emergency by President Joe Biden as the storm’s eye got closer to the southwest part of the island.
Ports in Puerto Rico have been shut down, and flights out of the major airport have been canceled.
According to the White House, the emergency declaration gives the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) the authority to coordinate disaster relief operations and provide emergency safety measures.
Officials from the US Energy Department stationed in Puerto Rico, according to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, will help with restoration operations “when it becomes safe to do so.”
As the Caribbean was inundated by heavy rainfall, Fiona was nearing hurricane intensity.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the brutal aftermath of Hurricane Maria as a result of the blackout it produced; electricity wasn’t restored in some areas for another year. On September 20, 2017, Maria, a destructive Category 5 hurricane, made landfall.
Once again, the whole island is without power, putting its 3.2 million inhabitants completely in the dark for the entire night.
Home roofs were torn off by the violent wind, and landslides were also triggered by the torrential rain.
According to the US National Hurricane Centre, Fiona made landfall 15 miles to the south-southeast of Mayaguez with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. It was traveling at 9 mph toward the northwest.
Power transmission and distribution firm Luma said that extreme weather, including 80 mph gusts, had destroyed transmission lines on Sunday, resulting in “a blackout on the whole island.”
Health facilities relied on generators, some of which had broken down. Crews hurried to fix the generators at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where many patients had to be evacuated, according to Health Secretary Carlos Mellado.
More than 3,000 houses still only have blue tarps covering their roofs, while other infrastructure, including the electrical system, is also in poor condition. Reconstruction has just just begun, and outages are still frequent.
Clouds from the storm enveloped the whole island, and gusts from Fiona’s center could be felt up to 140 miles away.
On Sunday about 2:00 PM, Governor Pedro Pierluisi tweeted that “the electrical grid is temporarily out of service.” In accordance with the strategies developed to deal with this crisis, protocols have been implemented.
Additionally, Pierluisi said on Sunday that government offices and public schools will be closed on Monday.
He said, “The damages we are witnessing are terrible.”
Power transmission and distribution provider Luma said that extreme weather, including 80 mph gusts, had damaged transmission lines and caused an island-wide outage.
The statement said that it might take many days to completely restore electricity and warned that the current weather conditions were highly hazardous and were impeding our ability to assess the whole issue.
The whole electrical system had initially been shut down to preserve its infrastructure, according to LUMA spokesperson Abner Gomez, who appeared during a news conference in the city of San Juan on Sunday night. According to him, attention was being given to hospitals and other vital community services while some electricity was being restored.
At the press conference, Pierluisi said, “This has been devastating.” As long as the weather permits, we are reacting to the situation.
Health facilities relied on generators, some of which had broken down. At the Comprehensive Cancer Centre, personnel are working to fix generators as quickly as possible, according to Health Secretary Carlos Mellado.
“I think all of us Puerto Ricans who experienced Maria have that post-traumatic stress of, “What is going to happen, how long is it going to last, and what needs might we face?”,” said Danny Hernández, who works in the nation’s capital but intended to ride out the storm with his parents and family in the western town of Mayaguez.
He described the mood as depressing as he and others filled up before the storm came.
We all felt some degree of shortage after Maria, he remarked.
Cities and villages on Puerto Rico’s southern coast were severely damaged by the storm since they had not yet completely recovered from a series of powerful earthquakes that began in late 2019.
By Sunday night, more than a thousand people and 80 animals had taken refuge on the island, the most of them along the southern shore.
Photos from Ponce, which is around 34 miles east of where Fiona made landfall, showed destroyed houses and flooded automobiles.
According to the National Hurricane Center, “These rains may cause mudslides and landslides in parts of higher elevation, along with life-threatening flash floods and urban flooding over Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic.”
Mayor of the northern town of Caguas, where at least one significant landslide was recorded, with water running down a wide slab of shattered asphalt and into a ravine, William Miranda Torres, stated, “I encourage people to remain in their houses.”
Authorities have shuttered beaches and casinos, organized approximately 80 shelters, and advised locals to take shelter.
With some schools still closed and debris to be cleared, the storm was predicted to wreak havoc on towns and communities along Puerto Rico’s southern coast that are still recuperating from a series of powerful earthquakes that struck the area beginning in late 2019.
As a result of trees and minor landslides blocking access, officials also reported multiple road closures around the island.
People boarded up windows and stocked up on food and water before of the hurricane’s arrival.
Fiona made landfall only two days before Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic Category 5 storm anniversary on September 20, 2017, which destroyed the island’s electrical system and left over 3,000 people dead.
Infrastructure is still lacking, and more than 3,000 households still just have a blue tarp covering their roofs.
What we’ve done, he said, is position ourselves to rely as little as possible on the federal government.
Ana Córdova, 70, who arrived Saturday to a shelter in the north coastal town of Loiza after purchasing plenty of food and water, feels the same way.
She remarked, referring to the government, “I don’t trust them.” “What transpired after Hurricane Maria made me lose faith.”
Denise Rios, who lives in the town of Hormigueros in the southwest, reported losing power as a result of a severe wind gust and rain that started at midday on Sunday.
Since then, she continued, “It hasn’t stopped.” “The wind is blowing furiously, and it is pouring severely.” I’m alert but relaxed.
The Dominican Republic, northern Haiti, and the Turks and Caicos Islands were all predicted to be hit by Fiona on Monday along with the possibility of significant rainfall. On Tuesday, it may pose a hazard to the extreme southern part of the Bahamas.
The eastern coast of the Dominican Republic, from Cabo Caucedo to Cabo Frances Viejo, was under a hurricane alert.
Fiona earlier tore across the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory, when floodwaters carried away his house in the Basse-Terre area, according to authorities.
President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter on Sunday that France will declare Guadeloupe to be in a state of natural disaster.
In addition to damaging roads and uprooting trees, the storm also wrecked at least one bridge.