Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands, devastating Puerto Rico, leaving people without electricity or running water. Video / AP
Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety.
The storm's eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory's capital island, on Tuesday morning after the Government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. Storm surges could raise water levels there by as much as 1.5-2.4 metres above normal, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the storm was about 80km north of North Caicos Island, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 45km from the centre.
Nicasio Gil walks through the stagnant water left by the swollen Duey river after the passing of Hurricane Fiona. Photo / AP
Premier Washington Misick urged people to evacuate. "Storms are unpredictable," he said from London, where he had attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. "You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety."
Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 185 km/h and was moving north-northwest at 13km/h, according to the Hurricane Centre, which said the storm was likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.
Rain was still lashing parts of Puerto Rico Tuesday, where the sounds of people scraping, sweeping and spraying their homes and streets echoed across rural areas as historic floodwaters began to recede.
In the central mountain town of Cayey, where the Plato River burst its banks and the brown torrent of water consumed cars and homes and overturned dressers, beds and large refrigerators lay strewn in people's yards Tuesday.
"Puerto Rico is not prepared for this, or for anything," said Mariangy Hernandez, a 48-year-old housewife, who said she doubted the Government would help her community of about 300 in the long term, despite ongoing efforts to clear the streets and restore power. "This is only for a couple of days and later they forget about us."
Neighbours work to recover their belongings from the flooding caused by Hurricane Fiona in the Los Sotos neighbourhood. Photo / AP
She and her husband were stuck in line waiting for the National Guard to clear a landslide in their hilly neighbourhood.
"Is it open? Is it open?" one driver asked, worried that the road might have been completely closed.
Other drivers asked the National Guard if they could swing by their homes to help cut trees or clear mud and debris.
The cleanup efforts occurred on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm in 2017 and knocked out power for a year in parts of Cayey.
Jeannette Soto, a 34-year-old manicurist, worried it would take a long time for crews to restore power because a landslide swept away the neighbourhood's main light post.
"It's the first time this happens," she said of the landslides. "We didn't think the magnitude of the rain was going to be so great."
Governor Pedro Pierluisi requested a major disaster declaration on Tuesday and said it would be at least a week before authorities have an estimate of the damage that Fiona caused.
He said the damage caused by the rain was "catastrophic", especially in the island's central, south and southeast regions.
"The impact caused by the hurricane has been devastating for many people," he said.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency travelled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to boost local response efforts.
The broad storm dropped copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio.
Another death was linked to a power blackout — a 70-year-old man was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with petrol while it was running, officials said.
Parts of the island had received more than 64cm of rain and more was falling Tuesday.
National Guard Brigadier General Narciso Cruz described the flooding as historic.
"There were communities that flooded in the storm that didn't flood under Maria," he said, referring to the 2017 hurricane that killed nearly 3000. "I've never seen anything like this."
Cruz said 670 people have been rescued in Puerto Rico, including 19 people at a retirement home in Cayey that was in danger of collapsing.
"The rivers broke their banks and blanketed communities," he said.
Some people were rescued via kayaks and boats while others crowded into the massive shovel of a digger and were lifted to higher ground.
He lamented that some people initially refused to leave their homes, adding that he understood why.
"It's human nature," he said. "But when they saw their lives were in danger, they agreed to leave."
The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria. Five years later, more than 3000 homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps.
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he would push for the federal Government to cover all disaster response costs — instead of the usual 75 per cent — as part of an emergency disaster declaration.
"We need to make sure this time, Puerto Rico has absolutely everything it needs, as soon as possible, for as long as they need it," he said.
Authorities said Tuesday that at least 1220 people and more than 70 pets remained in shelters across the island.
Fiona triggered a blackout when it hit Puerto Rico's southwest corner on Sunday, the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which slammed into the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.
By Tuesday morning, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 300,000 of the island's 1.47 million customers. Puerto Rico's governor warned it could take days before everyone has electricity.
Water service was cut to more than 760,000 customers — two-thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.
Fiona was forecast to weaken before running into easternmost Canada over the weekend. It was not expected to threaten the US mainland.
In the Dominican Republic, authorities reported the deaths of a 68-year-old man hit by a falling tree and an 18-year-old girl struck by a falling electrical post while riding a motorcycle. The storm forced more than 1550 people to seek safety in government shelters and left more than 406,500 homes without power.
The hurricane left several highways blocked, and a tourist pier in the town of Miches was badly damaged by high waves. At least four international airports were closed, officials said.
The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said authorities would need several days to assess the storm's effects.
Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floodwaters washed his home away, officials said.
