Hurricane Fiona slams Dominican Republic after leaving Puerto Rico with 'catastrophic' damage

Hurricane Fiona roared over the Dominican Republic on Monday, a day after knocking out power to all of Puerto Rico and causing damage the governor described as "catastrophic." Many people were also left without water service.

The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the power grid in 2017. Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island still have blue tarps for roofs.

The wind and water from Fiona stripped the pavement from roads, tore off roofs and sent torrents pouring into homes. The storm also took out a bridge and flooded two airports.

Authorities reported two deaths from the hurricane — a Puerto Rican man who was swept away by a flooded river and a person in the Dominican Republic who was hit by a falling tree.

The storm was still expected to dump up to 38 centimetres of rain in some places as it spun away from the U.S. territory that is home to 3.2 million people.

Forecasts called for the storm to grow into a major hurricane of Category 3 or greater and said it was on a path expected to pass close to the Turks and Caicos islands on Tuesday and was not likely to threaten the U.S. mainland.

One death was also associated with the blackout in Puerto Rico — a 70-year-old man who was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi declined to say how long it would take to fully restore electricity, but he said for most customers in Puerto Rico, it would be "a question of days."

800 people evacuated in Dominican Republic

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed hurricane relief efforts with Pierluisi on Monday and told him the number of federal personnel will increase substantially in the coming days, the White House said.

Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, authorities closed ports and beaches and told most people to stay home from work. The government reported one death from falling trees, officials said.

The National Weather Service office in Puerto Rico said flash flooding was occurring in south-central parts of the island and tweeted, "MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!"

Rain totals of up to 38 centimetres were projected for the eastern Dominican Republic, where authorities closed ports and beaches and told most people to stay home from work.

"It's important people understand that this is not over," said Ernesto Morales, a weather service meteorologist in San Juan.

'Damages that we are seeing are catastrophic'

He said flooding reached "historic levels," with authorities evacuating or rescuing hundreds of people across Puerto Rico.

"The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic," Pierluisi, the governor, said.

Water service was cut to more than 837,000 customers — two-thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.

Before dawn on Monday, authorities in a boat navigated the flooded streets of the north coast town of Catano and used a megaphone to alert people that the pumps had collapsed, urging them to evacuate as soon as possible.

Authorities said at least 1,300 people spent the night in shelters across the island.

Brown water poured into streets and homes and closed airports in Ponce and Mayaguez.

The system also ripped asphalt from roads and washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police said was installed by the National Guard after Maria hit as a Category 4 storm.

Fiona also tore the roofs off homes, including that of Nelson Cirino in the northern coastal town of Loiza.

"I was sleeping and saw when the corrugated metal flew off," he said as he watched rain drench his belongings and wind whip his colourful curtains into the air.

By early afternoon, Fiona had moved into the open Atlantic, where it was expected to strengthen, according to the National Hurricane Center.

At 2 p.m. local time on Monday, it was centred about 270 kilometres southeast of Grand Turk Island and was heading northwest at 15 km/h, with maximum sustained winds of 90 km/h.

Tropical storm-force winds extended for 220 kilometres from the centre.

State of emergency in place

Biden declared a state of emergency as the eye of the storm approached the island's southwest corner.

Puerto Rico's health centres were running on generators, and some of those failed. Health Secretary Carlos Mellado Lopez said crews rushed to repair generators at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where several patients had to be evacuated.

Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floodwaters washed his home away, officials said.

The system hit Puerto Rico on the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which slammed into the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.