Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Fiona made landfall along the extreme southwestern coast of Puerto Rico, near Punta Tocon, with winds reaching 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.
The US territory lost power as Fiona made landfall in the islands, already bracing with the threat of flooding and mudslides due to the Category 1 storm. “Puerto Rico is 100% without power due to a transmission grid failure from Hurricane Fiona,” the website said.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi confirmed the blackout in a tweet, saying the entire electric system was down and officials had activated the proper protocols to restore it.
The Authority of Electric Energy and LUMA Energy is working on the island’s wide power outage impacting nearly 1.5 million customers, Pierluisi added.
The outage comes five years after Puerto Rico’s power grid was ravaged by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, leaving many residents without electricity for months, CNN reported. Officials have stressed it won’t be like last time.
Winds are expected to increase along the immediate coastline, but conditions are forecasted to weaken throughout Sunday afternoon and evening.
“Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours while Fiona moves near Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and over the southwestern Atlantic,” the hurricane center said. “Hurricane conditions are expected on Puerto Rico today and are expected in portions of the eastern Dominican Republic tonight and Monday.”
The National Weather Service warned of life-threatening to catastrophic flooding, with flash flood warnings issued for south and east Puerto Rico, including Ponce and Yabucoa, through at least mid-afternoon. Adding that flooding had started after an estimated 1 to 4 inches of rain had already fallen.
Very heavy rainfall of 12 to 16 inches is possible across a wide swath of Puerto Rico, with most rain expected Sunday, and isolated locations across southern and eastern Puerto Rico could see up to 25 inches, the hurricane center reported.
The northern and eastern Dominican Republic is also affected, with a forecast anticipating 4 to 8 inches of rain, with isolated totals up to 12 inches possible.
“These rains will produce life-threatening flash flooding and urban flooding across Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic, along with mudslides and landslides in areas of higher terrain,” the hurricane center said.
Authorities have responded to one landslide I’m Saturday at an apartment complex in Guaynabo. There were no initial reports of injuries.
Around 120 shelters with 25,000 cots have been opened for residents in need, the governor confirmed.
President Joe Biden announced on Sunday morning an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico that freed up federal resources, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for emergency response and disaster relief efforts.
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