Hurricane Fiona was pouring down a downpour on the Dominican Republic on Monday after causing major flooding and damage in Puerto Rico, where it left residents without power and continues to bring heavy rainfall.
• Read also: Puerto Rico: Hurricane Fiona caused “considerable” damage in several regions
“The damage to infrastructure (…) and homes was catastrophic,” Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said at a press conference. “It’s a tough time, but our people are strong. »
After crossing Puerto Rico, the eye of Hurricane Fiona made landfall on the coast of the Dominican Republic around 07:30 GMT, with winds of 144 km / h, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The Dominican authorities have not yet provided an assessment of the damage caused by Fiona but the local press reports flooding in the coastal towns of the east of the country as well as cut roads.
According to the National Meteorological Office (Onamet), the rains will continue to fall on the Dominican Republic “at least until Thursday”.
Prior to Fiona’s arrival in the Dominican Republic, the island had placed 13 of its 32 provinces, in the north and east, on red alert.
Heavy rains had begun on Sunday evening to fall on Nagua, a coastal town of around 80,000 people located in one of the regions declared on red alert.
Emergency state
Previously in Puerto Rico, the hurricane caused landslides, downed trees and power lines, made roads impassable and led to the collapse of a bridge in the town of Utuado, in the mountainous region located in the center of the island.
“Unfortunately, we are expecting more rain all over the island today and tomorrow,” Puerto Rico’s governor said Monday, urging people to stay at home or in shelters and not venture into the streets.
“In many areas, which had never had floods before, there was an accumulation of water without precedent”, “more than what we saw during Hurricane Maria”, explained Mr. Pierluisi.
A former Spanish colony, Puerto Rico, which became an American territory at the end of the 19th century before acquiring a special status of “Associated Free State” in the 1950s, has been experiencing serious infrastructure problems for several years.
The island was devastated in 2017 by hurricanes Irma and Maria, which seriously damaged its power grid. This was then privatized in June 2021 with the stated aim of solving the problem of power cuts. The island, however, experienced a blackout in April 2022.
On Sunday, Fiona had upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane, at the bottom of the Saffir-Simpson scale, and made landfall at 3:20 p.m. local time (1920 GMT) on the southwest coast of Porto. Rico near Punta Tocon, carrying winds of up to 140 km/h. US President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency for Puerto Rico.
The entire territory of Puerto Rico, which has more than three million inhabitants, was without electricity as the hurricane approached. By Monday, power had been restored to 100,000 people, according to the governor.
At the same time, some 196,000 people were deprived of drinking water.
With the warming of the surface of the oceans, the frequency of the most intense hurricanes, with more violent winds and more important precipitations, increases. In particular, they pose an increasing risk to coastal communities.
Fiona had already caused serious damage during her visit to Guadeloupe overnight from Friday to Saturday. In places, the water had risen more than 1.5 meters. A man had died there, carried away with his house by the waves of a flooded river.