Nearly 75% of Puerto Rico was still without power Wednesday in the wake of Hurricane Fiona. Meanwhile, aerial footage showed extreme flooding was still widespread.
The power outage situation in Puerto Rico remained dire for a fourth day on Wednesday due to the impacts from Hurricane Fiona, which moved away from the Turks and Caicos after pummeling the islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm. By Wednesday morning, Fiona was headed northward and had strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane, packing 130-mph sustained winds.
Sheets of rain whipped through the islands blown by maximum sustained winds of 115 mph on Tuesday at the height of the storm in the Turks and Caicos. Local authorities advised all residents and tourists to remain indoors and refrain from travel, as the potential for major damage loomed for local trees and weakly-structured buildings.
Video captured from the Coral Gardens Resort in Providenciales showed trees struggling to stay upright amid the heavy winds as the skies were completely greyed out by the storm.
Fiona did the same over the weekend and into Monday across Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as torrential rain led to flooding, and powerful winds resulted in major power outages. In Puerto Rico, more than 48 hours after Fiona’s landfall, over 1.1 million customers were still without power according to PowerOutage.US, which added that “updates, exact numbers, and restoration timelines are not available.”
Officials blamed at least five fatalities in the northern Caribbean on the storm. As Fiona strengthened into a Category 3 storm late Monday night, conditions began to worsen across the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Power was slowly being restored to some parts of the island, but as of Wednesday, nearly 1.1 million customers, or roughly 74% of the island, remained without electricity. That was down slightly from the day before, when 80% of Puerto Rico had no power. The lengthy power outage problem is one of the reasons AccuWeather is estimating the economic impact on the island from Fiona to be about $10 billion.
LUMA, the private energy company that controls electricity for the entire island and which has come under heavy criticism, said Wednesday that it had crews out working to get the power back on throughout the island. In a statement posted on Twitter, the company said, it “will not rest until all clients have electricity service and the electrical network is reenergized.”
”READ FULL ARTICLE: https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/puerto-rico-outages-continue-in-fiona-aftermath-as-storm-moves-through-turks-and-caicos/1250040
About Author
