Even before hitting land, Hurricane Fiona has already caused an island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico. “It’s time to take action and be concerned,” the U.S. territory's emergency management commissioner says.
A man stands in front of a beach before the arrival of Tropical Storm Fiona in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Fiona was expected to become a hurricane as it neared Puerto Rico on Saturday, threatening to dump up to 20 inches of rain as people braced for potential landslides, severe flooding and power outages.
Fiona was centered 25 miles southwest of Ponce, Puerto Rico, on Sunday morning, and its clouds covered the entire island. It had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and was moving west-northwest at 8 mph .U.S. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in the U.S. territory as the eye of the storm approached the island’s southwest corner.Puerto Rico’s largest public hospital was running on generators and at some centers, those had failed.
Puerto Rico’s power grid was razed by Hurricane Maria and remains frail, with reconstruction starting only recently. Outages are a daily occurrence. It’s a sentiment shared by 70-year-old Ana Córdova, who arrived Saturday at a shelter in the north coastal town of Loiza after buying loads of food and water.
Fiona was predicted to drop 12 to 16 inches of rain over eastern and southern Puerto Rico, with as much as 25 inches in isolated spots. Morales noted that Hurricane Maria in 2017 had unleashed 40 inches .
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