() — More than 1.4 million people in Puerto Rico were left in the dark Sunday as Hurricane Fiona knocked out power across the island and lashed the territory with heavy rains, winds and life-threatening flooding, officials said.
As severe weather continued to batter Puerto Rico Sunday night, Hurricane Fiona began moving west toward the Dominican Republic, where it made landfall near Boca de Yuma at 3:30 a.m., according to an update. special from the National Hurricane Center.
So far, at least one death has already been reported in the badly damaged town of Basse-Terre, the capital of the French territory of Guadeloupe, the vice president of the territory’s environmental agency said on Sunday.
The hurricane made landfall on the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico on Sunday afternoon, lashing the island with severe winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour and bringing 15 to 61 centimeters of rain in some areas by the end of the day, according to the Weather Service. National.
Fiona continues to pummel Puerto Rico and parts of the eastern Dominican Republic overnight and into Monday. Eastern areas of the Dominican Republic may also experience flooding, as well as landslides in higher areas, according to the hurricane center. Fiona could 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 forecast to gain 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 National Hurricane Center. The Turks and Caicos Islands are under a hurricane warning and the southern Bahamas is under a tropical storm watch.
LUMA Energy, Puerto Rico’s main utility, said in a statement Sunday that it could be days before power is restored, adding that “several transmission line outages” are contributing to the blackout. The process will be done “little by little,” Governor Pedro Pierluisi said in a Facebook post.
The website PowerOutage.us reported that the entire island was without power early Monday morning, adding that LUMA had “re-energized some circuits, however there is limited information and no numbers on how many customers have had power restored.” “.
Power outages have become a family crisis for many living in Puerto Rico. Just five months ago, residents experienced another island-wide blackout after a fire broke out at a power plant.
Parts of the island still bear the scars of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico almost exactly five years ago. After Hurricane Maria inflicted catastrophic damage on the territory’s infrastructure, it took nearly a year to restore power to the entire island.
Samuel Rivera and his mother, Lourdes Rodríguez, lived without power for about a year after Maria’s attack, Rivera told ‘s Layla Santiago. On Sunday morning, they lost power again, prompting fears similar to those they had five years ago.
They said they are also worried that a nearby river could overflow and trees around their house could be blown over by strong winds.
Life-threatening floods in Puerto Rico
When Hurricane Fiona made landfall on Sunday, most of Puerto Rico was under a flash flood warning in anticipation of the overwhelming downpour. The National Weather Service in San Juan warned of “catastrophic” and life-threatening flooding conditions.
A video of the dangerous flooding shows torrential waters easily sweeping across a bridge, dragging its structure downstream. Another shot by Samuel De Jesús shows a scene in the city of Arecibo as rain pours down in torrents, adding to the fast-moving waters reaching large construction vehicles and entire trees.
Many rivers on the eastern side of the island were in moderate to major flood stages on Sunday afternoon, including a southeastern river that rose more than 12 feet in less than 7 hours. On Sunday night, the National Weather Service also issued flash flood warnings for the southern parts of central Puerto Rico.
In response to the risk facing Puerto Rico, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration early Sunday to provide federal assistance to disaster relief efforts.
More than 300 FEMA emergency workers were on the ground responding to the crisis, the agency’s Associate Administrator for Response and Recovery, Anne Bink, told .
“Our hearts go out to the residents who are once again experiencing another catastrophic event five years later,” Bink said, nodding to the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria. This time, he said, FEMA plans to implement the lessons learned from the 2017 crisis.
“We are much more prepared. We now have four warehouses strategically located throughout the island, which include basic products, exponentially larger supplies than in the past,” he said.
“We’re there proactively, and well ahead of any storm, to make sure we’re coordinating. And all the planning efforts that we undertake during those days of blue skies can be carried out when the rain falls.”
‘s Leyla Santiago, Jamiel Lynch, Alfonso Serrano, Caitlin Kaiser, Allie Malloy, Haley Brink, Dakin Andone and Robert Shackelford contributed to this report.
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