Hurricane Fiona knocked out power on Sunday Puerto Rico, pouring torrential rains and causing “considerable” damage on this American island, before heading towards the Dominican Republic.
Fiona notably caused landslides, downed trees and power lines, made roads impassable and led to the collapse of a bridge in the town of Utuado, in the mountainous region located in the center of the island, Governor Pedro Pierluisi said at a press conference on Sunday evening.
The whole territory, which has more than three million inhabitants, was deprived of electricity as the hurricane approached, Pierluisi added, saying that the electricity grid was out of service.
The hurricane, which made landfall at 3:20 p.m. on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico, near Punta Tocon, carrying winds of up to 140 km / h, is now located off Puerto Rico and is expected hit the Dominican Republic on Monday.
However, torrential rains are expected to continue to fall on the island overnight from Sunday to Monday, causing sudden and devastating floods.
Fiona will remain a “catastrophic event due to the aftermath of flooding” in the central highlands east and south of Puerto Rico, Pierluisi tweeted, adding that 23-33cm of rain fell in just five hours .
“Rainfall amounts will produce catastrophic flash flooding and urban flooding in Puerto Rico and parts of the eastern Dominican Republic, as well as mudslides and landslides in high ground areas,” he said. said the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Ahead of Fiona’s arrival in the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader announced that public and private services would be closed on Monday.
Heavy rains began to fall on Sunday evening in Nagua (north), a coastal town of around 80,000 inhabitants located in one of the regions declared on red alert.
Fiona should get stronger
The depression, which upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday, is expected to strengthen and become “significant within 48 hours” according to the NHC, before heading north towards the Atlantic Ocean. .
In the town of Utuado, a family saw the zinc roof of their house fly off, like in 2017 during Hurricane Maria, according to local media.
“It is an extremely complicated and sad situation. The damage we are seeing is catastrophic in several regions,” Pierluisi told reporters at Sunday’s press conference.
“The entire island is experiencing a significant accumulation of rain. Multiple severe damage was reported in many cities.”
Fiona had already caused serious damage during her visit to Guadeloupe overnight from Friday to Saturday. In places, the water rose more than 1.50 meters. A man died there, carried away with his house by the waves of a flooded river.
US President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for Puerto Rico on Sunday, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance.
The NHC also said tropical storm conditions are expected in the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas by late Monday or Tuesday morning.
Mr Pierluisi told the press that the authorities reiterated “the request made to the inhabitants, and to which the majority of them responded, to stay at home or seek refuge if they need it”.
With the warming of the surface of the oceans, the frequency of the most intense hurricanes, with more violent winds and more important precipitations, increases. In particular, they pose an increasing risk to coastal communities.
A former Spanish colony, Puerto Rico, which became a US territory at the end of the 19th century before acquiring a special status of “Associated Free State” in the 1950s, has been experiencing serious infrastructure problems for several years.
The island was devastated in 2017 by hurricanes Irma and Maria which seriously damaged its power grid. This was then privatized in June 2021 with the stated aim of solving the problem of power cuts. The island, however, experienced a blackout in April 2022.