Hurricane Fiona touched down near the southwestern city of Punta Tocon, Puerto Rico at 3:20 PM local time on Sunday. According to the National Hurricane Center, winds were as high as 85 miles per hour.
The hurricane center predicts 12-18 inches of rainfall with eastern and southern Puerto Rico potentially experiencing a maximum of 30 inches.
According to the hurricane center, “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 Weather Service is already encouraging people to “move to higher ground now.” They also advised, “Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.” Salinas County has already experienced multiple swift water rescues due to the heavy rainfall.
Hurricane Fiona makes landfall in the Dominican Republic -U.S. NHC https://t.co/7dmubJgyym pic.twitter.com/8TvRB4CJmu
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 19, 2022
According to PowerOutage.us, Puerto Rico as a whole lost power early on Sunday.
Pedro Pierluisi, the Governor of Puerto Rico, sent a tweet confirming the power outage and ensuring that territory officials are working to restore power by initiating the appropriate protocols..
In September of 2017 Hurricane Maria knocked out Puerto Rico’s power grid leaving residents without power for months. However, head of public safety and crisis management at LUMA Energy, Abner Gomez said “This is not Maria, this hurricane will not be Maria,” assuring citizens that utility authorities feel capable of restoring electricity “with the help of local government agencies.”
Anne Bink, FEMA’s Assistant Administrator for Response and Recovery said, “Our heart goes out to the residents that are again going through another catastrophic event five years later.
The territory’s Governor advised that roughly 120 shelters have been opened for those in need with 25,000 available cots. He also advised that schools would be closed today and that non-emergency government workers should stay home and not travel to work.
Fiona, the third hurricane of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season is projected to become a Category 3 storm or higher in about 48 hours east of the Bahamas.
