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 23:25 · Ethan Freedman]

At least one person dead

At least one person has been killed in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Fiona, a man who attempted to fill his generator with gasoline while it was still running, reports the Associated Press.

Other deaths or injuries are possible, but officials don’t have a full scope of the damage yet.

[19 September 2022 23:50 · Ethan Freedman]

Extensive damage to Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic

A downed power line near San Juan, Puerto Rico. The entire island lost power today as the hurricane swept through (EPA)

A home in the Dominican Republic that lost its roof as a result of the hurricane (AP)

Damaged buildings near the shore in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (REUTERS)

[20 September 2022 00:20 · Ethan Freedman]

Tropical cyclones don’t need to be Category 4 or 5 to be extremely devastating.

Hurricane categories are based on wind speed – meaning storms with heavy winds can be extremely destructive. But some storms have drought disastrous floods even with lower wind speeds if they dump enough rain.

Fiona hit Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as a Category 1 storm, but rainfall rates in some areas have been comparable to those during the Category 4 Hurricane Maria five years ago.

[20 September 2022 00:50 · Ethan Freedman]

Fiona to strengthen and head north

The National Hurricane Centre is forecasting that Hurricane Fiona will get stronger in the next few days as it heads north, threatening Turks and Caicos, parts of the Bahamas, Bermuda and eventually the tip of Atlantic Canada as it reached the northern Atlantic

Forecast for Hurricane Fiona as of Monday afternoon (NHC/NOAA)