San Juan, Sept. 22 (BUS): Hurricane Fiona intensified into a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday as it headed toward Bermuda after carving a devastating path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, with the storm leaving most people without power and up to eight dead.
After making landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday, Fiona caused devastating floods and landslides on the island. Reuters reported that the storm strengthened over the next two days as it reached the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Fiona was packing winds of up to 130 mph (215 kph) on Wednesday and is expected to intensify as it moves north towards Bermuda, although no direct hit to British territory is expected. . Fiona could reach the Atlantic coast of Canada on Friday.
Eric Blake, acting president of the NHC Miami chapter, said Bermuda would see high waves, storm surge, torrential rain and strong winds even if Fiona continued its current path and passed to the west of the island. The commission said Bermuda would see the worst of the storm late Thursday.
“Hopefully, the heart of the storm will stay west, but it can still trot east and hit Bermuda,” Blake said, adding that the eastern coast of the United States will see significant upsurges and rip currents as the storm advances toward Canada.
“That’s going to be a big deal out there,” he told Reuters, referring to Fiona’s path toward Canada’s Atlantic provinces Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador.
In Puerto Rico, where 40% of the island’s 3.3 million residents remain without water and three-quarters lack energy, authorities have been trying to determine the extent of the destruction and begin rebuilding.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday approved a disaster declaration for Puerto Rico, making federal funding available to individuals affected by the storm, the White House said in a statement.
Dr. Maria Conti Miller, director of the Institute of Forensic Sciences, said Fiona may have caused at least eight deaths, including the death of a four-month-old baby whose mother struggled to get to hospital due to closed roads. Round table on Tuesday. The deaths are under investigation.
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency has so far attributed four deaths to the storm that hit Puerto Rico. A fifth person was killed in Guadeloupe earlier this week.
For many Puerto Ricans, the memory of Hurricane Maria in 2017 is still fresh. About 3,000 people died in that Category 5 storm, which left the entire island without power for a week.
Marilou Maldonado, 45, a saleswoman from the northwestern Puerto Rican town of Camuy, said water was returned to her residence on Tuesday, but the governor and power provider failed to deliver on their promise to restore electricity to her area.
“People are under a lot of pressure,” she said. “Here in the field, the crisis is emotional. It’s an emotional crisis because of the frustration of not having electricity and we are lying to us.”
An estimated 1.07 million homes and businesses remained without power in Puerto Rico by midday Wednesday, according to LUMA Energy, which said the full restoration of all 1.5 million customers could take several days.
The Bermuda Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning for British Territories, 600 miles (966 km) east of the US state of North Carolina. She said hurricane-strength winds are a possibility that depends on the storm’s path.
Michael Beecher, deputy director of the service, said the country was “like a dot sticking out of the ocean” with no protective beaches, meaning the severe flooding was more dangerous.
However, Beecher said, Bermuda is prepared for what Fiona has in store for the island.
“Bermudas are doing very well in preparing for storms,” she said. We build strong homes.
MI