Intensifying Hurricane Fiona is bringing heavy rain, strong winds and power outages to Puerto Rico. Power has been knocked out across the island.
The latest: Fiona’s center was heading east of the Dominican Republic Sunday evening, but heavy rains and “catastrophic” flooding continued to batter much of Puerto Rico, according to a tweet from the National Hurricane Center.
The big picture: The storm is dumping more than two feet of rain on Puerto Rico, “causing catastrophic flooding,” the National Hurricane Center warns. Hurricane-force winds have knocked out the island’s fragile power grid.
- Fiona made landfall near Punta Tocon on the island’s southeast coast at about 3:20 p.m. local time with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, according to a tweet from the NHC.
- The storm has seen winds increase by 15 mph since the NHC upgraded it to Tropical Storm Fiona at 8 a.m. ET.
Expand: Fiona is a Category 1 hurricane and is expected to remain so until landfall in Puerto Rico.
- Ponce, on the south side of the island, saw sustained winds of 69 mph with a maximum gust of 103 mph, according to the Hurricane Center.
- President Biden has declared a federal disaster for Puerto Rico, mobilizing the delivery of aid to the island.
Data: National Hurricane Center; Map: Jared Whalen/Axios
Threat Level: The storm could bring torrential rain to Puerto Rico through Monday, with a widespread area of 12 to 18 inches of rain. Higher amounts will fall in some places, especially at higher elevations, where up to 30 inches could fall in a short period of time.
- “These rains will produce life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and urban flooding in Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic, along with mudslides and landslides in areas of higher ground,” the Center for Hurricanes from 2pm on Sunday.
- Almost the entire island was under a flash flood warning at 5:00 pm ET.
Meanwhile, heavy rain and hurricane-force winds were expected in areas of the eastern Dominican Republic Sunday night and Monday.
- Puerto Rico’s power grid, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Maria in 2017, has been reeling, with nearly 1.5 million customers without power as of 7 p.m. ET, according to Poweroutage.us.
What they’re saying: “The damage we’re seeing is catastrophic,” Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said.
What we’re seeing: The test for utility operators now will be how quickly they can restore power after the storm passes.
Notable: NOAA scientists successfully navigated a remotely operated “Sail Drone” into the eye of Hurricane Fiona, which helped validate their intensity estimate.
- Storm surge flooding of 1 to 3 feet above normally dry land is expected Saturday along the southern coast of Puerto Rico, provided the maximum storm surge reaches high tide.
- The San Juan NWS issued flash flood warnings throughout Sunday as rains cause rivers and streams to rise. Video on social media shows torrents of water sweeping away bridges, power lines and other infrastructure in southwestern Puerto Rico.
- The storm earlier caused damaging flooding after dumping nearly 20 inches of rain on the French island of Guadeloupe late last week.
What happens next: Fiona is expected to continue to intensify once it moves northwest of Puerto Rico and north of the Dominican Republic. The storm is expected to slowly turn north by midweek as it moves near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands.
- The storm is expected to become the first “major” Atlantic hurricane of the season, with Category 3 or greater intensity by midweek.
- Most computer models now have the storm out to sea well east of the continental United States, but it could be a threat to Bermuda by the end of the week.
Editor’s Note: This is breaking news. Check back for updates.