September 19, 2022 Hurricane Fiona slams Puerto Rico

After pounding Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Hurricane Fiona has strengthened and is forecast to pass near or to the east of the Turks and Caicos early Tuesday.

Maximum sustained winds are now 105 mph, making Fiona a Category 2 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center. 

The hurricane is steadily strengthening over the warm waters of the Atlantic. 

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Turks and Caicos, a British territory southeast of the Bahamas.

Beyond Turks and Caicos, Fiona is expected to pass near or west of Bermuda on Thursday night as a dangerous Category 3 or 4 hurricane.

The hurricane center noted that Fiona is still producing heavy rainfall and “life-threatening flash flooding” in the eastern portions of the Dominican Republic.

People clean a house flooded by the rains from Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico on September 18.

The damage in Puerto Rico is mostly rain-related, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said Monday.  

“By the time the tail leaves Puerto Rico, we will have gotten roughly 36 inches of rain. That’s a huge amount of rain,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during AC 360. 

Only about 115,000 out of 1.4 million customers currently have power, he said.  

The entire island was in the dark early Monday, PowerOutage.us reported.

Additionally, only about a third of customers are getting water services because filtration plants are being impacted by the river flooding and excess rain, the governor said. 

Pierluisi said he was hopeful that within a “matter of days” power will be restored to most customers, though he said they haven’t been able to inspect many of the power lines due to the lingering impacted of Fiona. 

Soldiers from the 125th Military Police Battalion help rescue families trapped by the floods caused by Hurricane Fiona.

The Puerto Rico National Guard rescued dozens of people from severe flooding caused by Hurricane Fiona, the agency said in a statement, adding the storm also caused widespread power outages.

The National Guard has more than 450 members on the ground to assist people in need after heavy rains and damaging winds struck the island on Sunday.  

They included 21 elderly, bedridden people who were rescued from an elderly home in Cayey that was threatened by mudslides, the statement said.  

Additionally, 59 people and 13 pets were rescued from a flooded community in Mayagüez.

National Guard personnel also rescued people in Salinas, Toa Baja and Añasco, among other municipalities in Puerto Rico, the statement said.

At least two people died as a result of Hurricane Fiona, a spokesperson for Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi told CNN on Monday.

A 58-year-old man died after being swept away by La Plata River behind his home in Comerío. Another man in his 30s died after attempting to fill his generator with gasoline while it was on, setting it on fire, according to spokesperson Sheila Angleró-Mojica.

People clean debris from a road after a mudslide caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico on September 18.

As Hurricane Fiona moves away from Puerto Rico, communities there are going to need help in order to recover and rebuild, according to Carmen Yulín Cruz, the former mayor of San Juan. And she laid out the some steps for what she believes should happen next.

The first is the provision of equipment.

She told CNN on Monday that mayors are telling her they need machinery to move mud from mudslides before it sets and becomes “really, really sticky and almost impenetrable.”

They will need to clear out this mud in the next few days once it stops raining in order to ensure first responders and aid workers can reach communities safely, Yulín Cruz said.

Also, she said, FEMA needs to adapt to the local conditions, noting that the agency had recently reported that most municipalities don’t have the English language skills, which can delay some technical processes when responding to an emergency.

When it comes to rebuilding the infrastructure itself, the former mayor said “we need to start looking for permanent solutions to recurrent problems.”

“We also need people power to do all the work that’s going to need to be done in the next few days, but I have hope. We are relentless, and we will make it,” she added.

A man walks through debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico on September 19.

Hurricane Fiona is strengthening again as the center of the storm moves away from the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Maximum sustained winds are up to 100 mph, making it a Category 2 storm.

The tropical storm warning for Puerto Rico has been discontinued as the threat of strong winds has diminished. There is a lingering flood threat as heavy rain from the outer bands continues to impact the island. Additional rainfall of 4 to 8 inches is possible, especially in the heaviest bands, according to the National Hurricane Center’s forecast.

The center of Fiona is now located about 130 miles southeast of Grand Turk. On the forecast track, the center of the storm will pass near or to the east of the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday.

“Hurricane conditions are expected in the Turks and Caicos beginning late tonight or early Tuesday,” the hurricane center said.

Beyond tomorrow, Fiona is expected to become a Category 3 or 4 hurricane and pass near or west of Bermuda Thursday night.

Homes are flooded on Salinas Beach after the passing of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico on Monday.

President Biden spoke to Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi about the “immediate needs of the people of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Fiona” on Monday. The President was flying back from Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral during the call, the White House says. 

“President Biden described the surge of Federal support to the island, where more than 300 Federal personnel are already working to assist with response and recovery,” according to a readout of the call, provided by the White House. “In the coming days, as damage assessments are conducted, the President said that number of support personnel will increase substantially.”

Biden also told Pierluisi he would “ensure that the Federal team remains on the job to get it done, especially given that Puerto Rico is still recovering from the damage of Hurricane Maria five years ago this week,” the readout said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell will travel to Puerto Rico Tuesday to “meet with State and local officials and impacted citizens and assess urgent needs that the President has directed FEMA to meet,” the White House added. 

As CNN previously reported, rescuers are scrambling to save flooding victims in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona wiped out power to most of the island before crashing into the Dominican Republic.

Residents stand amid their homes that were damaged by Hurricane Fiona in the neighborhood of Kosovo in Veron de Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on September 19.

Hurricanes are enormous heat engines of wind and rain that feed on warm ocean water and moist air — and scientists say the climate crisis is making them more potent.

The proportion of high-intensity hurricanes has increased due to warmer global temperatures, according to a UN climate report released in August. Scientists have also found that the storms are more likely to stall and lead to devastating rainfall and they last longer after making landfall.

“We have good confidence that greenhouse warming increases the maximum wind intensity that tropical cyclones can achieve,” Jim Kossin, senior scientist with the Climate Service, an organization that provides climate risk modeling and analytics to governments and businesses, told CNN.

When hurricanes are stronger and move slower, they dump more rain, meaning more damage and flooding in the areas they pass over.

A 2020 study published in the journal Nature also found storms are moving farther inland than they did five decades ago. Hurricanes, which are fueled by warm ocean water, typically weaken after moving over land, but in recent years they have been raging longer after landfall. The study concludes that warmer sea surface temperatures are leading to a “slower decay” by increasing moisture that a hurricane carries.

For every fraction of a degree the planet warms, according to the UN report, rainfall rates from high-intensity storms will increase, as warmer air can hold more moisture. Earlier this week, what had been Tropical Storm Fred dumped more than 10 inches of rain on western North Carolina, according to the National Weather Service, which pushed the Pigeon River near Canton nine feet above flood stage and killed at least four people.

Learn more.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said during a press conference Monday at least two people have died at shelters on the island. 

Asked if the fatalities were caused by Hurricane Fiona, Pierluisi said they do not know of any traumatic deaths and the two people at the shelters died from natural causes.

“We are confirming these at this time because the institute of forensic sciences has a job to do,” Pierluisi said. “Whatever death, whether it is related directly or indirectly to this event, will be reported. That is what I can say at this time.”

Meanwhile, Pierluisi said there are currently no reports of anyone missing due to the storm.

Volunteers remove the water brought by Hurricane Fiona at a storm shelter in Salinas, Puerto Rico on Monday, September 19.

Craig Fugate, a former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator, said natural disasters and storms like Hurricane Fiona, the rebuilding process needs to be looking towards the future, not the past.

Almost exactly five years ago, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico with high winds, but now some of the same communities are facing a different problem with Hurricane Fiona — devastating flooding and a lot of rain, something they didn’t experience during Hurricane Maria.

Fugate said that when rebuilding starts and officials go back into the areas where people are living, they need to “build back against all the threats of these storms. It isn’t just wind that we’re seeing with this storm.”

The former FEMA administrator said much of the infrastructure that was repaired after Maria was temporary. Now, most of it was washed away by flooding from Fiona.

“It’s important that when we rebuild after these disaster, we’re rebuilding for the future, not what’s happened in the past,” he told CNN on Monday.

“The insanity of going back and putting it back the way it was isn’t working. We’ve got to really focus on making the investments of where we’re going to rebuild, how we’re going to rebuild. Because the climate has changed — how we’ve been rebuilding and developing hasn’t caught up yet,” he added.

The role of the climate crisis: Hurricanes — also called tropical cyclones or typhoons outside North America — are enormous heat engines of wind and rain that feed on warm ocean water and moist air. And scientists say the climate crisis is making them more potent.

The proportion of high-intensity hurricanes has increased due to warmer global temperatures, according to a UN climate report released last month. Scientists have also found that the storms are more likely to stall and lead to devastating rainfall and they last longer after making landfall.

A person walks amidst debris on the seashore in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on September 19.

Hurricane Fiona has knocked 59 aqueducts out of service in the Dominican Republic, with several others partially functioning, leaving more than 1 million customers without running water, said Jose Luis German Mejia, a Dominican Republic emergency management (COE) official.

There’s already damage to many structures across the Dominican Republic, said Juan Manuel Mendez, the country’s emergency management director of operations. At least 54 homes have been reported damaged so far, he said.

Emergency officials transported 789 people to safety, Mendez said at a briefing Monday. There are currently 519 people in 29 shelters, he said.

There are 10 electric circuits offline currently, but officials did not have an exact number of how many customers were without power.

Mejia said “this is still an emergency event” and the storm is still affecting the country.

Raquel Peña, the nation’s vice president, tweeted Monday afternoon urging the Dominican people “to be attentive to the information from” COE and officials “given that the effects of hurricane #Fiona will continue in the next few hours.”

“The government is in permanent session, responding to the emergency,” she said.

Residents affected by Hurricane Fiona rest at a storm shelter in Salinas, Puerto Rico on Monday.

Dealing with catastrophic flooding, mudslides and widespread power outages, some people in Puerto Rico are comparing the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona to Hurricane Maria — the devastating storm that hit the island almost exactly five years ago.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a business owner in southern Puerto Rico, told CNN correspondent Leyla Santiago that he thinks Hurricane Fiona has been worse than Maria. He said a lot of people have lost everything in the flooding.

As search and rescue efforts continue on Monday, Gonzalez told Santiago that it’s a small town and residents there feel like they need to take care of themselves.

“Who’s going to take care of this town? Nobody, you know what I’m saying? If we don’t take care of it, nobody’s going to take care of it,” he said.

The National Guard was called in to rescue hundreds of people overnight, Santiago reported, but there are still places in Puerto Rico that are too dangerous for rescue crews to get to as rain continues to fall on Monday.

Some background: Hurricane Maria inflicted catastrophic damage to the territory’s infrastructure. It took almost a year for power to be restored across the island.

Right now, after Fiona, more than 1 million people are still without power, as of Monday morning. Additionally, about 66% of customers don’t have water, Santiago reported.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says the response to Maria was the largest and longest to a domestic disaster in US history. Massive flooding damaged more than half a million homes. Many families are still rebuilding.

A man wades through water in a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico on September 19.

Millions of people in Puerto Rico are still without power as of Monday morning after Hurricane Fiona made landfall this weekend as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 90 mph.

The storm is continuing to bring torrential rain to the island, even as it starts to move into the Atlantic. Fiona is expected to strengthen and could hit Turks and Caicos as a Category 2 hurricane on Tuesday and threaten Bermuda later this week.

Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria five years ago. Now, as the island starts to recover from Fiona, several organizations already have teams on the ground providing assistance. You can help them here.

Three people inside a house await rescue from the floods caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico.

How to help victims of Hurricane Fiona

A cyclist observes the strong waves in Nagua, Dominican Republic on September 19.

Hurricane Fiona is likely to strengthen as it moves into the Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center.

In its most recent forecast at 2 p.m. local time, the hurricane center said the “center of Fiona will pass near or to the east of the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday,” where it is predicting 4 to 8 inches of rain.

Northern and eastern parts of the Dominican Republic will also be impacted by tropical storm conditions, with an additional 4 to 8 inches of rain, according to the hurricane center. Some local areas could get up to 10 inches of rain total, the forecast said.

As the storm turns to the north-northwest, it will strengthen over the next few days and “become a major hurricane by Wednesday,” the forecast said. Hurricane-force winds can extend up to 30 miles away from the center of the storm.

Puerto Rico: The hurricane center said the island will see more rain and tropical storm conditions on Monday.

Southern parts of Puerto Rico could see an additional 4 to 8 inches of rain. All of this rain will produce “life-threatening and catastrophic flooding along with mudslides landslides across Puerto Rico,” the forecast said.

Most of the island is still without power, local officials said.

The National Weather Service is warning anyone visiting East Coast beaches to be aware of potentially dangerous tide conditions caused by Hurricane Fiona.

The storm is continuing to bring heavy rain and flooding to Puerto Rico on Monday, as much of the island remains without power.

The NWS said in a tweet that while Fiona will stay offshore of the US, it could lead to strong rip currents and rough surf starting Wednesday through the end of the week.

The NWS in Wilmington, North Carolina, shared a map showing those factors affecting the coast near Myrtle Beach, Carolina Beach and Surf City.

“If you plan on visiting the beaches then pay attention to flags and follow the guidance of lifeguards and other local beach officials,” the tweet said.

Read more:

Although scientists say it got off to a slow start, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Colorado State University predict this Atlantic hurricane season is still expected to be above-normal. This is according to the most recent forecasts released last month.

Hurricane Danielle was the season’s first hurricane, officially getting the designation on Sept. 2. That means that last month was the first August in 25 years to go without a single named storm in the Atlantic.

The last time a season’s first hurricane came this late was on Sept. 11, 2013, with Hurricane Humberto.

The average date for the season’s first hurricane is August 11.

This was only the third August since 1950 that the Atlantic saw no named storm. And it’s the first time since 1941 that there wasn’t a named storm in the Atlantic from July 3 to August 30, said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University.

The second storm, Hurricane Earl strengthened into a hurricane on Sept. 6 near the Caribbean. Most recently, this weekend, Fiona strengthens into a Category 1 hurricane, 50 miles south of Puerto Rico.

The San Juan port is expected to open Monday afternoon as Hurricane Fiona continues to dump heavy rain, said Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of Congress.

The St. Thomas maritime port has already reopened, she tweeted.

González said in a tweet that the US Coast Guard will start search and rescue missions “by air and sea soon.”

“They anticipate that there may be sunken small vessels, but so far have no received reports,” she said.

Read her tweets:

Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard rescue a woman stranded in her house in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico on Monday, September 19.

Emergency crews have rescued 1,000 people so far in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, according to Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes, the adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard.

Responders rescued one woman who was hanging from a tree for seven hours after she attempted to cross flood waters. In the same area, officials said emergency crews also helped three more people who also tried to get across rising water.

The general said rescues were widespread and urged everyone to heed warnings from officials. Reyes said there were also many rescues overnight and into the morning in Salinas after the river burst.

“This is still a tropical weather event, as history has taught us, we’ll now start seeing the runoff from the mountain region” in the south toward the north, Reyes said, urging those in hazard areas to seek shelter.

“What we don’t want is loss of life,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said.

The governor said 75% of the cellular infrastructure is operational following the brunt of the storm. He attributed the functioning communications to generator upgrades made after Hurricane Maria.

“Maria served as an exercise for the people who handle emergencies, at all levels, the coordination during Fiona has been exemplary,” the governor said. “The communication has been excellent, but this is not over… we keep going 24/7,” he added.

Most of the island is still without power. 

Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said Monday that the New York governor will send 100 first responders to assist with recovery efforts after Hurricane Fiona, as soon as weather permits travel. New Jersey and California’s governors have also pledged to send help, he said.

FEMA has 400 officials on the island currently dedicated to Hurricane Fiona recovery, Pierluisi said, adding that he plans to request a disaster declaration from President Joe Biden. The President approved an emergency declaration for the storm on Sunday. 

Rain from Fiona caused more widespread flooding across the island than when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017, Puerto Rico officials said at a briefing on Monday.  

There are 2,146 people and 254 pets being housed in 113 shelters as of Monday, said the governor. Officials have had up to 2,300 people in shelters in the past, said Pierluisi. 

President Joe Biden issued a message on Monday to the people of Puerto Rico, which is continuing to deal with catastrophic flooding and heavy rainfall caused by Hurricane Fiona.

The message, relayed via the White House’s Spanish language Twitter account, @LaCasaBlanca, translates to, “A message from President Biden on Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico: Jill and I hold the people of Puerto Rico in our prayers as Hurricane Fiona passes over your beautiful island. We stand with you and we will get through this together.”

Biden approved an emergency declaration in Puerto Rico on Sunday.

Hurricane Fiona has weakened slightly due to interaction with Hispaniola and now has winds of 85 mph with higher gusts, according to the 11 a.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center. The center of the hurricane is moving off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic near eastern Samana Bay, which should allow it to begin to strengthen again later today.

Heavy rains from Fiona will continue to produce life-threatening and catastrophic flooding along with mudslides and landslides across Puerto Rico through tonight, the hurricane update said. Life-threatening flash and urban flooding is likely for eastern portions of the Dominican Republic through early Tuesday. 

During the next two to three days, the hurricane should gradually turn toward the north-northwest and north with steady strengthening, becoming a major hurricane within the next couple of days.

Hurricane conditions are expected in the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday, and tropical storm conditions are expected in the southeastern Bahamas by late Monday or early Tuesday.

Here’s a look at the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center:

Rainfall from Hurricane Fiona has swollen the Guanajibo River in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, surpassing its previous record height set during Hurricane Maria.

The Guanajibo River is at 29.2 feet, according to the National Weather Service. Its past record, set during Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017, was 28.59 feet. According to NOAA/USGS river gauge data, the river rose 17 feet in about 12 hours from Sunday into Sunday evening. The river starts overflowing its banks at 21-22 feet. 

The Municipality of Mayaguez — Hormigueros is located in the municipality on the western side of the island — says it is continuing to conduct rescues in the area.

A truck is seen next to downed power lines in Cayey, Puerto Rico as the island awoke to a general power outage on September 19.

More than a million people remain without power in Puerto Rico Monday morning after Hurricane Fiona knocked power out across the island.

LUMA Energy officials said Monday morning that they have “restored electrical service to 100,000 customers.”

Electricity has been repaired for some “within the municipalities of Toa Alta, Toa Baja, the San Juan metropolitan area, Bayamón and Corozal,” the company tweeted. 

LUMA urged residents to stay away from downed wires as crews continue to work in hazardous conditions. 

The Puerto Rican energy company operates and manages the electric power transmission and distribution system on the island, according to its company website.

As Fiona is moving slowly to the northwest on Monday, it is still dropping flooding rain on Puerto Rico, where more than 1.4 million people are without power. Some parts of the island still bear the scars of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico almost exactly five years ago.

After Hurricane Maria inflicted catastrophic damage to the territory’s infrastructure, it took almost a year for power to be restored across the island.

Samuel Rivera and his mother Lourdes Rodriguez lived without power for about a year after Maria struck, Rivera told CNN’s Layla Santiago. On Sunday morning, they lost power once again, conjuring up similar fears to those they had five years ago.

They said they are also concerned a nearby river may overflow and the trees surrounding their home may be felled by the powerful winds.

Some more context: The hurricane made landfall on the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico Sunday afternoon, bearing down on the island with severe winds of up to 75 miles per hour and bringing 6-24 inches of rain to some areas by the end of the day, according to the National Weather Service.

Fiona will continue to pummel Puerto Rico and eastern portions of the Dominican Republic into Monday. Eastern areas of the Dominican Republic may also see flooding as well as mudslides and landslides in higher areas, according to the hurricane center. Fiona could bring a total of up to 30 inches of rainfall to Puerto Rico and up to 12 inches to eastern and northern Dominican Republic.

LUMA Energy, the main power utility in Puerto Rico, said in a statement Sunday it could be days before power is restored, adding “several transmission line outages” are contributing to the blackout. The process will be done “gradually,” Governor Pedro Pierluisi said in a Facebook post.

The website PowerOutage.us reported the entire island was without power, early Monday morning, adding LUMA had “reenergized some circuits, however there is limited information, and no numbers on how many customers have been restored.”

Power outages have become a familiar crisis for many who live in Puerto Rico. Just five months ago, residents experienced another islandwide blackout after a fire broke out in a power plant.

Hurricane Fiona made landfall in the Dominican Republic early today after slamming Puerto Rico with heavy rain, life-threatening flooding and an islandwide power outage.

The storm is continuing to move northwestward. Here’s a look at what to expect next:

• This morning: The center of Fiona — a 90 mph, Category 1 hurricane — will move over the eastern portion of the Dominican Republic during the next few hours and emerge over the southwestern Atlantic this afternoon.
• The conditions on the island: Hurricane conditions are impacting portions of the Dominican Republic along with heavy rain. Northern and eastern Dominican Republic are forecast an additional 4 to 6 inches with a local maximum of 8 inches. Storm totals could be up to 15 inches for the eastern part of the country. Life-threatening flash and urban flooding are likely for eastern portions of the Dominican Republic.
• Strengthening expected: As Fiona moves away from land, more significant strengthening is expected over the next few days, becoming a major hurricane on Wednesday.
• The next island in Fiona’s path: The center is forecast to pass near or to the east of the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday as a Category 2 hurricane. Hurricane conditions are expected in the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday, and tropical storm conditions are expected in the southeastern Bahamas by late Monday or early Tuesday.
• Later this week: Fiona will continue turning northward and then northeastward this week, nearing Bermuda on Friday as a major hurricane.

Here’s a look at the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center:

Hospitals in San Juan’s medical complex have power after Hurricane caused an islandwide blackout Sunday, Puerto Rico Health Secretary Dr. Carlos Mellado López said on Twitter on Sunday.

“The power system at all the hospitals in the Medical Center Complex has been restored,” Dr. Mellado said, referring to the island’s most important medical complex, which stretches across 227 acres. “Our patients are safe and receiving the medical care they need.”

Still, even with the help of LUMA Energy technicians, who helped get generators online after the power went out, health care providers decided to transfer eight cancer patients to the Oncological Hospital. The decision was made swiftly and with the well-being of patients in mind, said Mellado.

“I appreciate the personnel from the Puerto Rico Fire Department, emergency medical staff and Disaster Management-NMEAD for the transfer of patients to the Oncological Hospital,” the secretary said.

A home is submerged in floodwaters caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico on September 18.

Fiona — currently boasting sustained winds of 90 miles per hour — remains over the eastern Dominican Republic. But the storm’s impacts continue to be felt in Puerto Rico, where heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding continue across much of the US territory. 

Nearly the entire island remains under flash flood and flood warnings. More than a foot of rainfall has been reported in several locations, and one reporting station north of the city of Ponce reported over 2 feet of rain in the last 24 hours. 

Southern Puerto Rico can expect an additional 4 to 6 inches, with up to 10 inches maximum possible in some locations. That would result in a storm total of 12 to 20 inches of rain, with local maximums of 30 inches. 

These rains will continue to produce life-threatening and catastrophic flooding along with mudslides and landslides across Puerto Rico. 

Fiona is expected to strengthen as it moves away from the Dominican Republic later Monday, heading north over warm water. By Tuesday morning, the storm is forecast to be near the eastern Turks and Caicos Islands. There, it will continue to turn north before shifting to the northeast, nearing Bermuda on Friday as a major hurricane. 

A man with his son is seen on the beach in Nagua, Dominican Republic, on Sunday.

Hurricane Fiona moved from western Puerto Rico to the eastern side of the Dominican Republic overnight, as a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.

Fiona’s eye made landfall near Boca de Yuma at 3:30 a.m. local time, according to a special update from the National Hurricane Center. The Punta Cana International Airport recently reported a sustained wind of 51 mph and a gust of 79 mph.

The storm is moving slowly northwest at 8 mph, carrying torrential rains and the threat of flooding, the National Hurricane Center said.

Rain continues to fall in Puerto Rico, where much of the island remains under flash flood warnings early Monday.

Members of the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) monitor the trajectory of Hurricane Fiona in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Sunday.

Hurricane Fiona continues to pummel Puerto Rico and eastern portions of the Dominican Republic. The storm could bring a total of up to 30 inches of rainfall to Puerto Rico and up to 12 inches to eastern and northern Dominican Republic.

Eastern areas of the Dominican Republic may see flooding as well as mudslides and landslides in higher areas, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane is forecast to build strength once it passes over the Dominican Republic and is expected to move toward Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas on Monday and Tuesday, according to the hurricane center. The Turks and Caicos are under a hurricane warning and southern Bahamas are under a tropical storm watch.

Power remains out in Puerto Rico and much of the island remains under a flash flood warning.

A river swollen with rain caused by Hurricane Fiona speeds through Cayey, Puerto Rico, on Sunday.

Heavy and continuous rainfall from Hurricane Fiona has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood emergency for Sector San Felipe and Mosquito in Salinas County, Puerto Rico until midnight local time.

Between 10-15 inches of rain have fallen, and an additional 2-4 inches are possible in the warned area. Multiple swift water rescues are already occurring in Salinas County.

The National Weather Service is urging people to “move to higher ground now. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”

A large contingent of responders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were in place as Hurricane Fiona reached the island.

During an interview on CNN Newsroom with Pamela Brown, Anne Bink, FEMA’s Assistant Administrator for Response and Recovery said the responders on are the ground working “hand and glove” with the Commonwealth and their emergency management structure.

“Our heart goes out to the residents that are again going through another catastrophic event five years later,” Bink said, noting Fiona has hit close to the five-year anniversary of the devastating Hurricane Maria.

Bink said FEMA’s response is dual-focused, including emergency power generation for critical facilities and ensuring a command and control structure is in place for things like search and rescue, and addressing long-term needs as the island moves into recovery.

“The biggest concern is the life and safety of residents,” she said, urging everyone to follow the direction of local officials.

Bink added lessons were learned from Hurricane Maria.

“We were much more prepared,” she said. “We have four warehouses now strategically located throughout the island which includes commodities, exponentially larger supplies than in the past. Ten times the meals and water, three times the emergency generator support and more than that, we’re proactively there and well ahead of any storm hitting to make sure that we are coordinating and all of the planning efforts we undertake during those blue skies days can be brought to bear when the rain falls.”

A man stands near a flooded road in Villa Blanca, Puerto Rico, on Sunday.

Hurricane Fiona caused catastrophic flooding in Puerto Rico as it moved just west of Puerto Rico early Sunday evening, heading for the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center said in an update.

Many rivers on the eastern side of the island are in moderate to major flood stage. One river in the southeast has risen over 12 feet in less than seven hours and is now over 25 feet. This breaks the previous record of 24.79 feet set in 2017 during Hurricane Maria.

The hurricane center forecast 12-18 inches of rainfall with a local maximum of 30 inches, particularly across eastern and southern Puerto Rico. Nearby in the northern and eastern Dominican Republic, 4-8 inches of rainfall was expected, with a local maximum of 12 inches possible along the northeast coast.

“These rains will produce life-threatening and catastrophic flash and urban flooding across Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic, along with mudslides and landslides in areas of higher terrain,” the hurricane center warned.

While Sunday’s islandwide blackout on Puerto Rico brought to mind the crippling, monthslong outage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico’s main power supplier vowed history would not repeat itself with Hurricane Fiona.

“This is not Maria, this hurricane will not be Maria,” Abner Gomez, a LUMA energy spokesperson, told reporters Sunday.

“We will be repairing and restoring electricity, with assistance from local government agencies, to bring power back as quickly as possible,” Gomez said.

Local officials also stressed that about 25 inches of rain is forecast with Hurricane Fiona; far less the 40 inches of rain Hurricane Maria brought to the island in 2017. 

LUMA Energy, the main supplier of power in Puerto Rico, warned “full power restoration could take several days,” according to a statement Sunday afternoon. 

An islandwide power outage knocked out service for nearly 1.5 million customers as Hurricane Fiona approached the island and eventually made landfall.

LUMA’s statement, in Spanish, says Hurricane Fiona’s winds have caused “several transmission line outages,” which are contributing to the blackout.

Conditions are too dangerous for the company to fully assess the situation, but the company says they “are already mobilized, and we will begin our reestablishment efforts as soon as it is safe.”

LUMA is asking its customers to remain patient as the storm passes as they coordinate restoration.

A man wades through a flooded street in Yauco, Puerto Rico, on Sunday.

There is currently no power in Puerto Rico due to damage caused by Hurricane Fiona, according to PowerOutage.US, which is tracking the effects on the power grid operated by LUMA Energy, the island’s main supplier of power.

“Puerto Rico is 100% without power due to a transmission grid failure from Hurricane Fiona,” said the website Sunday. A later update stated, “LUMA has reenergized some circuits, however there is limited information, and no numbers on how many customers have been restored.”

In a tweet, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said the entire electric system is out of service. He said officials have activated proper protocols to repair.

The blackout – which followed hours of progressively worsening power outages – comes five years after Puerto Rico’s power grid was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, leaving many residents without electricity for months.