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Hurricane Fiona As it continues to crush Puerto Rico, it hits the Dominican Republic – nearly destroying the island’s strength and causing dangerous flooding.
Fiona landed in the Dominican Republic on Monday morning after making landfall in southwestern Puerto Rico the day before.
But the punching of Puerto Rico, which after almost five years is almost entirely under flash flood or flood warnings, is still not over. Hurricane Maria devastated USA region.
An area north of the city of Ponce has reported more than 2 feet of rain in the past 24 hours. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said southern Puerto Rico could expect 4 to 6 inches or more of rain earlier this week, meaning Fiona would leave the island with 12 to 30 inches of rain.
“These rainfall amounts will continue to produce life-threatening and catastrophic flooding in Puerto Rico, along with mudslides and landslides,” the hurricane center said. Said.
Fiona is already deadly in the Caribbean. At least one death has been reported heavily damaged city Basse-TerreIt is the capital of the French region of Guadeloupe, the vice-president of the region’s environmental agency said.
And Fiona could turn into a major hurricane by Wednesday. Winds reaching 111 mph. The National Hurricane Center said this would make Fiona the first major hurricane of the year in the Atlantic.
More than 1.4 million Puerto Rican electricity customers, such as homes and businesses, have lost electricity, officials said. The whole island was dark early Monday, PowerOutage.tr reported.
It could be days before electricity is restored, as daily high temperatures are predicted to reach mid-80s to 90s after Monday, the main power utility in Puerto Rico said on Sunday.
LUMA Energy said several transmission line outages contributed to the outage. Power will be “gradually” restored, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a Facebook post.
Late Monday morning, some good news from the island’s capital: The power system for hospitals in San Juan’s medical complex is back, Puerto Rico Health Minister Dr. Said Carlos Mellado López. The complex is the most important on the island and spans 227 acres, according to the Puerto Rico Health Administration.
“The power system in all hospitals in the Medical Center Complex has been restored,” Mellado said on Sunday night. “Our patients are safe and receiving the medical care they need.”
The National Hurricane Center said the hurricane struck the community of Boca de Yuma in the Dominican Republic early on Monday, breaking winds with a maximum speed of 90 mph.
The hurricane center said eastern parts of the Dominican Republic could also see flooding, mudslides or landslides. Fiona can receive up to 12 inches of rain in the eastern and northern parts of the country.
More significant strengthening is expected as Fiona moves northward over warm water as Fiona moves away from the Dominican Republic’s northern coast.
Tropical storm conditions are expected in the southeastern Bahamas late Monday or early Tuesday, and Fiona is expected to impact eastern Turks and Caicos Tuesday morning.
“Fiona will continue to turn north and then northeast this week, approaching Bermuda as a major hurricane on Friday,” said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller. Said.
Power outages have become a familiar crisis for many in Puerto Rico. Just five months ago, residents suffered another island-wide blackout After a fire broke out at a power station.
Parts of the island still bear traces of Maria. caused devastating infrastructure damage; It took almost a year for electricity to return across the island.
Samuel Rivera and his mother, Lourdes Rodriguez, lived without electricity for nearly a year after Maria, Rivera told CNN’s Layla Santiago. By Sunday morning, they lost their power once again, creating fears similar to their fears five years ago.
They also said they were concerned that a nearby river could overflow and the trees surrounding their home could be knocked down by strong winds.
Flowing waters easily deleted a bridge, a video of dangerous flood demonstrations that move down its structure. Elsewhere in the city of Arecibo, in another video by Samuel De Jesús, rain fell in sheets as the rapidly moving waters covered large construction vehicles and all the trees.
Many rivers on the east side of the island were in moderate to major flood stages on Sunday afternoon, including a southeast river that rose more than 12 meters in less than seven hours.
US President Joe Biden approved an emergency statement early Sunday to provide federal assistance to disaster relief efforts.
More than 300 FEMA emergency workers are on the ground to respond to the crisis, said Anne Bink, FEMA’s associate director of Response and Rescue.
Bink nodded to Maria, “Our hearts go out to the residents who experienced another catastrophic event five years later.” said. This time around, he said, FEMA plans to apply the lessons learned from the 2017 crisis.
“We were much better prepared. We now have four strategically located warehouses across the island containing commodities and materials exponentially larger than in the past,” Bink said.
We’re proactively there to make sure we coordinate and we’re well ahead of any storm. And all the planning work we undertook on those deep blue days can be realized when it rains.”
