Hurricane Fiona - news: Storm landfall in Dominican Republic as 1,000 stranded and power out in Puerto Rico
Officials say it could take several days for full power resoration - follow for the latest updates
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More than a million residents of Puerto Rico are without power as Hurricane Fiona departed the US island territory and continued on a path to the Dominican Republic.
Wind speeds of 85mph and “historic” rains were felt as the tropical storm made landfall on Puerto Rico’s eastern shores on Sunday, where many rivers are now heavily flooded and at least one road bridge was swept away.
As of Monday morning, more than 1.3 million homes were still without power as conditions remained too dangerous for repairs across large swaths of the island. Power company LUMA warned that it could take several days for full power resoration.
The storm made landfall early Monday in the Dominican Republic and is on track to brush past the southeast Bahamas, as well as Turks and Caicos into Tuesday.
Overnight, US President Joe Biden issued an emergency disaster declaration to speed-up the relief process for the island, which was days away from marking the fifth anniversary of another powerful hurricane that caused thousands of deaths and the collapse of vital energy infrastructure in 2017.
Hurricane Fiona makes landfall as Puerto Rico suffers power outage
Hurricane Fiona made landfall along the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico as the island suffered from a complete island-wide power outage.
The hurricane came ashore near Punta Tocon, at 3.20pm ET yesterday with winds of 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, and has already caused damaging flooding as it heads towards the Dominican Republic.
Earlier Puerto Rico suffered a massive loss of power as Hurricane Fiona took aim at the US territory and started to batter it with “historic” rains and severe winds, which officials say could cause mudslides.
Many rivers on the eastern side of Puerto Rico are now in a state of moderate to major flooding, according to CNN.
One river in the southeast part of the island has now risen more than 12 feet in less than seven hours and is now over 25 feet, breaking the previous record of 24.79 feet set during Hurricane Maria in 2017.
My colleague Graeme Massie reports:
Hurricane Fiona makes landfall as Puerto Rico suffers island-wide power outage
Officials have warned that US territory could be drenched by up to 25 inches of rain with winds of around 80mph
Maryland and Pennsylvania send relief workers
Two US states have said they will send relief forces to Puerto Rico.
A task force of 35 firefighters and civilians from Maryland will leave for the island on Monday, The Baltimore Sun reported, while Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf said he will send two search and rescue advisers.
More states are likely to announce similar deployments as FEMA calls for further aid. FEMA is already on the ground following President Joe Biden's declaration of a state of emergency at Puerto Rico's request on Sunday morning.
“Thank you POTUS for a swift approval of an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico," said FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg on Sunday. “This will allow FEMA to respond and support the island as they experience the extreme weather impacts of [then] Tropical Storm Fiona."
Video shows bridge being swept away as Hurricane Fiona brings flooding
A metal bridge in Puerto Rico that was built in the aftermath of 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria has been ripped away again by Hurricane Fiona.
Videos shared by reporters, bystanders, and local politicians showed the bridge on Puerto Rico Highway 123 in the town of Utuado being torn out of its moorings and washed downriver by surging flood waters.
Some videos showed metal railings on the side of the road, attached to the bridge, pulled out of the ground and dragged along with it.
The bridge was originally installed in 2018 after the previous crossing was destroyed by Hurricane Maria, according to Puerto Rico legislator Roberto Lefranc Fortuño.
It came as the US National Hurricane Centre (NHS) warned of “catastrophic flash and urban flooding” across Puerto Rico and and the eastern Dominican Republic, which lies further along the path of the storm.
My colleague Io Dodds reports:
Puerto Rico: Video shows bridge being ripped away as Hurricane Fiona brings floods
The metal structure was erected in 2018 to replace a bridge destroyed by Hurricane Maria
Five yeas after Maria, reconstruction drags on in Puerto Rico
Jetsabel Osorio Chevere looked up with a sad smile as she leaned against her battered home.
Nearly five years have gone by since hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, and no one has offered her family a plastic tarp or zinc panel to replace the roof that the Category 4 storm ripped off the two-storey home in an impoverished corner in the north coast town of Loiza.
“No one comes here to help,” the 19-year-old said.
It’s a familiar lament in a US territory of 3.2 million people where thousands of homes, roads and recreational areas have yet to be fixed or rebuilt since Maria struck in September 2017.
The government has completed only 21 per cent of more than 5,500 official post-hurricane projects, and seven of the island’s 78 municipalities report that not a single project has begun.
Only five municipalities report that half of the projects slated for their region have been completed, according to an Associated Press review of government data.
Read the details here:
5 years after Maria, reconstruction drags on in Puerto Rico
Nearly five years have passed since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.2 million people
Damage by hurricane Fiona reminds residents of Maria: ‘We all have post traumatic stress’
Fiona hit just two days before the anniversary of hurricane Maria, a devastating storm that struck on 20 September 2017, destroying the island’s power grid and causing nearly 3,000 deaths.
More than 3,000 homes still have only a blue tarp as a roof, and infrastructure remains weak, including the power grid. Outages remain common, and reconstruction started only recently.
“I think all of us Puerto Ricans who lived through 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 Hernandez, who works in the capital of San Juan but planned to weather the storm with his parents and family in the western town of Mayaguez.
He said the atmosphere was gloomy at the supermarket as he and others stocked up before the storm hit.
“After Maria, we all experienced scarcity to some extent,” he said.
Ada Vivian Roman, a 21-year-old photography student, said the storm knocked down trees and fences in her hometown of Toa Alta.
“I’m actually very anxious because it’s a really slow-moving hurricane and time does not move,” she said. “You look at the clock and it’s still the same hour.”
She said she is also worried about whether the public transportation she relies on to get to her job at a public relations agency will be operating by the time she has to go back to the office.
“But I know that I’m privileged compared with other families who are practically losing their homes because they are under water,” she said.
Video: Light goes out as Puerto Rico’s governor briefs press about the hurricane’s impact
In pictures: Hurricane Fiona pounds Puerto Rico, knocking out power grid and unleashing floods
Puerto Ricans exchange memes amidst the chaos
Puerto Ricans are resorting to swapping memes about Hurricane Fiona, riffing on the fact that it shares a name with the princess in Shrek and joking that it’s searching the Caribbean for the grumpy ogre.
Many islanders are still waiting for the electricity grid to get back online.
“We don’t really know when the power and the electricity is going to come back," San Juan resident Ana Marcial told WFLA Channel 8. "We really never know. It’s very unpredictable."
ICYMI: Video shows bridge ripped away by flood waters
This is the moment that a metal bridge erected in the wake of 2017's devastating Hurricane Maria was swept away by Fiona in a matter of minutes.
Videos shared by reporters, bystanders, and local politicians showed the bridge on Puerto Rico Highway 123 in the town of Utuado being torn out of its moorings and washed downriver by surging flood waters.
Hurricane Fiona nears Dominican Republic after wreaking havoc in Puerto Rico
Fiona is forecast to hit the Dominican Republic today and then northern Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands, with the threat of heavy rain.
It could threaten the far southern end of the Bahamas tomorrow.
The hurricane is centred 50 miles (85km) southeast of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140kph) last night, according to the US National Hurricane Center. It was moving to the northwest at 9mph (15kph).
Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floods washed his home away, officials said. The storm also damaged roads, uprooted trees and destroyed at least one bridge.
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