Hurricane Fiona blasted Puerto Rico with flooding and island-wide blackouts on Sunday, and the Category 1 storm churned westward toward Hispaniola into Monday as it’s expected to dump even more rainfall.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a statement late Sunday night, saying “tropical conditions will continue to spread over portions of Dominican Republic within the area through Monday.”
The weather service still warns that flooding across the islands could be “catastrophic” and that mudslides in the mountainous areas are possible.
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What’s next for Fiona?
NHC still forecasts Hurricane Fiona to turn north on Monday afternoon, then northeast into the Atlantic, which would leave the mainland United States in the clear of any direct hit or any outlying wind or heavy rains that could lead to dangerous flooding.
The islands, on the other hand, are still in harm’s path.
“These rainfall amounts are expected to produce life-threatening flash floods and urban flooding, along with mudslides in higher terrain, especially across portions of Puerto Rico and portions of the eastern Dominican Republic,” the NHC stated.
On Sunday morning, Fiona increased from a tropical storm into a hurricane. At the same time, Puerto Rico lost power in every home and in most businesses, reminiscent to what happened with Hurricane Maria almost five years to the date.
“Puerto Rico is 100% without power due to a transmission grid failure from Hurricane Fiona,” according to PowerOutage.us.
Puerto Rico is still trying to recover both physically and mentally from Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in 2017 as a Category 5 storm. Most of the island lost power, it wiped out most power grids and caused physical erosion to the country’s coastline.
Maria’s damage was estimated at $91.6 billion, which is the third-costliest hurricane on record.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published Fiona’s probable cone path late Sunday. The path shows Hurricane Fiona moving into the Dominican Republic, dumping rain over the that country and Haiti, but then sharply moving north.
By Tuesday evening, Fiona is predicted to upgrade into a major hurricane, meaning that sustained winds have gone above 110 mph. The path cone at this time shows Hurricane Fiona moving north, and parallel to the U.S. East Coast, as a major hurricane until Friday, when a downgrade is expected.
The U.S. mainland appears to be safe for now, but things could rapidly change on a moment’s notice with tropical systems.
As storms move over warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, they usually become more powerful. Once they reach wind speeds of 74 mph, that’s when it becomes a Category 1 hurricane. It becomes a Category 2 hurricane at 96 mph. It becomes a major hurricane at 110 mph, or a Category 3.
Even if they don’t reach winds high enough to become hurricanes, these storms can still dump rainfalls that can cause life-threatening floods.