Hurricane Fiona Brings Island-Wide Blackout and Massive Floods to Puerto Rico

Hurricane Fiona tore by means of Puerto Rico on Sunday, knocking out energy throughout the island and unleashing catastrophic flooding. As of writing, greater than 1.36 million households are with out electrical energy, in accordance with PowerOutage.us.

The storm killed at the least one man in Guadeloupe within the japanese Caribbean. No deaths have been reported thus far in Puerto Rico, however the full scope of harm stays unknown, and harmful circumstances persist on the bottom. Hundreds of individuals have been evacuated from the toughest hit and most susceptible areas throughout the island, the Associated Press reports.

Fiona has been transferring west, and the attention of the storm is now over the Dominican Republic. However, Puerto Rico stays beneath a tropical storm warning, as bands of heavy rain proceed to lash the U.S. territory. Multiple counties within the south and western elements of the island are beneath flash flood warnings till 2 p.m. native time Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

“Flash flooding is ongoing in PR. Heavy rainfall will only aggravate the current situation. MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!,” the San Juan NWS stated in a tweet.

Wind gusts between 30-40 mph are additionally nonetheless affecting the southern municipalities. At the storm’s peak, winds gusted as quick as 80 mph.

NWS warned that the continued flash floods might be “life threatening” and stated mudslides and rockfalls are possible. Large landslides have additionally already been reported in some areas, in accordance with the AP.

As a lot as 30 inches of rain have already fallen in some remoted areas, whereas bigger swathes the south and east obtained between 12 and 16 inches. Several extra inches are possible.

Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico simply two days earlier than the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which killed 1000’s of individuals. Notably, Maria additionally destroyed the island’s energy grid and led to the longest blackout in U.S. historical past, with some areas of the island will with out energy a yr later. Puerto Rico’s public Electric Power Authority declared chapter in May 2017, and personal energy firm LUMA took over the island’s electrical energy transmission and distribution in 2021.

However, since LUMA’s takeover, there’s been repeated outages and different points. Four meals firms sued the electrical firm in April after one significantly widespread, four-day blackout. And earlier this month, Puerto Ricans took to the streets to protest LUMA’s 15-year contract with the island’s authorities.

At one level on Sunday, all the island—practically 1.5 million households—was with out energy. As of seven a.m. Monday morning, although, LUMA stated it had restored electrical energy to about 100,000 prospects. “Given the size and scope of the outage, as well as ongoing impacts of Hurricane Fiona, full power restoration could take several days,” the corporate stated on its website.

Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico has a Category 1 storm and persists at that power over the Dominican Republic. Storm class doesn’t essentially correspond to degree of devastation, as slow-moving storms like Fiona can result in bigger complete rainfall over a single space and exacerbate infrastructure harm and hazard.

By early Tuesday morning, the hurricane is forecast to strengthen to a Category 2 earlier than making landfall in Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas. On Wednesday, the storm is forecast to strengthen even additional right into a Category 3 hurricane. Fiona is projected to stay off the Atlantic coast of the continental U.S, with a trajectory that centers over Bermuda, and it’s ultimately anticipated to hit Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in Canada.