Hurricane Fiona: Puerto Rico's catastrophic floods

Hurricane Fiona has made landfall in Puerto Rico, causing devastating flooding amidst historic rains.

After becoming a hurricane on Sunday morning, Fiona made landfall in the south-western corner of Puerto Rico at 3:20pm (local EDT) on September 18th, near Punta Tocón.

Fiona lost forward speed, stalling over the island, which had brought catastrophic rains to the small Caribbean Island as the rain bands have been swinging, nonstop, over the same regions.

Across the south-eastern portion of Puerto Rico, extreme rainfall is expected. 200-300mm of rain has already fallen in some parts, with as much as 750mm possible before it clears within the next few hours.

The island reported having no electricity on Sunday afternoon. Tensions between residents and the electric companies have increased since Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2020. Constant power outages are common, but once again the island is left completely in the dark after a hurricane strikes.

The slow movement, which has placed Puerto Rico in a bad spot and under torrential, nonstop rains, will start to change as the system makes the much-awaited turn to the north overnight into Monday morning.

Fiona is then expected to bring high winds and torrential rains to The Dominican Republic, where up to 600mm could fall as the hurricane makes landfall in the far eastern portion of the island, near Punta Cana on Monday.

Fiona will continue strengthening. Under the current track, it will not pass much terrain and any that it does pass now will not be enough to disrupt it.

Fiona could become a major category hurricane as the system pulls north of Turks and Caicos on Tuesday September 20th. Bermuda could then be dealing with a major hurricane later this week.