Hurricane Fiona wreaked havoc through Puerto Rico on Monday, September 19th, with heavy rain and winds that triggered mudslides,’catastrophic’ flooding and caused a power outage that swept across the island. Even as the storm made landfall in the Dominican Republic on Monday, it continued to devastate Puerto Rico with relentless rains — more than 30 inches in southern parts of the island. Thousands of locals were left with no adequate supply of drinking water. While more than 1,000 water rescues were performed, and more were underway, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said.
The entire power grid across the U.S. territory was also knocked down on Sunday afternoon, September 18th, before the storm made landfall, leaving everyone without electricity. Less than 10% regained power on Monday, and power distribution company LUMA Energy warned that it could take several days to restore electricity because of the magnitude of the outage.
With the situation worsening, The National Weather Service in San Juan urged residents to move to higher ground ‘immediately.’ Authorities reported two deaths in Puerto Rico – one, a 58-year-old man swept away by a flooded river in the inland town of Comerio and another, a 70-year-old man burned while trying to operate a generator. Another death was reported in the Dominican Republic, where a falling tree hit a person.
