Puerto Rico, Battered by Hurricane Fiona, Could Be Without Power for Days
The storm moved west into the Dominican Republic, as conditions in Puerto Rico remained too dangerous for repair workers early Monday.
As the eye of Hurricane Fiona barreled west into the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico was left early Monday with a knocked-out energy grid, widespread flooding and continued heavy rains, with conditions remaining too dangerous for officials to assess the scope of the crisis.
But it was immediately clear that the island would have a difficult recovery process, with as much as 30 inches of rain in some places. Even as the storm moved west, heavy rain from its outer bands were expected in Puerto Rico through Monday afternoon.
The rain will be heavy enough to produce what the National Weather Service called “life-threatening and catastrophic flooding” along with mudslides and landslides across Puerto Rico on Monday.
All of the nearly 1.5 million customers tracked by poweroutage.us, which tracks power interruptions, were without power on Sunday.
The power company LUMA warned on Sunday that full power restoration in Puerto Rico could take several days, with the storm creating “incredibly challenging” conditions for repair workers.
“The current weather conditions are extremely dangerous and are hampering our ability to fully assess the situation,” it said on its website.
On Sunday morning, Fiona strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane.