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

Hurricane Fiona knocks out power in Puerto Rico

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.

Key points

• Hurricane Fiona makes landfall as Puerto Rico suffers power outage
• Joe Biden approves emergency declaration to help disaster relief
• Fiona nears Dominican Republic after pounding Puerto Rico
• Damage by hurricane Fiona reminds residents of Maria

[19 September 2022 18:56 · Ethan Freedman]

The National Guard rescues a woman in Salinas, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona (REUTERS)

[19 September 2022 19:10 · Ethan Freedman]

Power still out

Electricity has been restored to some areas of Puerto Rico, as LUMA, the power company, works to get the island’s infrastructure back up and running.

But huge swaths of the island remain completely without power according to poweroutage.us, and even most homes in areas that have had power restored are still dark.

The entire island’s grid collapsed as Hurricane Fiona hit on Sunday and Monday.

[19 September 2022 19:30 · Ethan Freedman]

US East Coast to see rip currents

As Hurricane Fiona moves north, it’s unlikely to reach the east coast of the US, lingering offshore.

But coastal regions could still see dangerous conditions as the storm churns up waters in the ocean, sending swells and dangerous rip currents to beaches and other shorelines.

[19 September 2022 19:50 · Ethan Freedman]

What do the hurricane categories mean?

Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico as a Category 1 hurricane and is forecast to become a Category 3 hurricane by later this week.

Hurricane categories are dependent on maximum sustained wind speeds – meaning a Category 5 hurricane has much faster winds than a Category 1 storm.

A tropical cyclone with wind speeds less than 74 miles per hour (119 kilometres per hour) is not categorized as a hurricane, but rather a tropical storm.

A cyclone with wind speeds less than 39 mph (63 kph) is a tropical depression – which does not get a name.

The categories do not indicate how much rain will fall, how big the storm or how slowly it might be moving – meaning even a lower-category storm can have a big impact, as we’ve seen in Puerto Rico today.

[19 September 2022 20:11 · Ethan Freedman]

Shadow of Maria lingers

Some of the damage from Fiona might be due to the slow and stagnating rebuilding of the island after Hurricane Maria five years ago.

The Associated Press reports that many homes on the island are still lacking proper roofs, and public infrastructure – like the power grid – remains weak.

“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?’” one local resident told AP.

Hurricane Maria led to nearly 3,000 deaths, with water and power shut down in much of the island for weeks.

Hurricane Fiona wiped out power to all of Puerto Rico, though some areas are beginning to be restored.

[19 September 2022 20:40 · Ethan Freedman]

Two other storms forming

The National Hurricane Centre is watching two other storm systems in the Atlantic with the potential to form cyclones.

One in the tropics is moving toward the Caribbean and has a 20 per cent chance of forming a cyclone in the next five days.

The other is in the middle of the ocean and moving further north toward more ocean, with a 30 per cent chance of forming a cyclone in the next five days.

If either were to become a tropical storm, they’d be named Gaston.

[19 September 2022 21:10 · Ethan Freedman]

People take shelter from the hurricane in Salinas, Puerto Rico (AFP via Getty Images)

People and some dogs take refuge at a school being used a shelter in Salinas, Puerto Rico (AP)

[19 September 2022 21:40 · Ethan Freedman]

Dominican Republic without water

More than 1 million people have lost access to running water in the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Fiona battered the country’s water infrastructure, a representative from the Dominican government has told CNN.

Hundreds of thousands of people are also without water in Puerto Rico as the storm devastated the northeast Caribbean.

[19 September 2022 22:15 · Ethan Freedman]

[19 September 2022 22:50 · Ethan Freedman]

Airport floods in Ponce

Flooding from Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico has devastated much of the country’s infrastructure, including inundating an airport in Ponce