The island is bracing for potential flooding amid concerns the storm could damage its power grid, which is still recovering from Hurricane Maria.
The eye of newly formed Hurricane Fiona neared Puerto Rico's south coast on Sunday - already causing an island-wide power blackout and threatening to dump "historic" levels of rain,Forecasters said the downpour was expected to produce landslides and catastrophic flooding, with up to 25 inches possible in isolated areas.
Fiona hit just two days before the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a devastating Category 4 storm that struck on Sept. 20, 2017, destroying the island's power grid and causing nearly 3,000 deaths.Luma, the company that operates power transmission and distribution, had warned warned of "widespread service interruptions" and on Sunday the governor announced that all power service had been knocked out.
More than 640 people with some 70 pets had sought shelter across the island by Saturday night, the majority of them in the southern coast. Rivera said his employees brought bedridden family members to the hotel, where he has stocked up on diesel, gasoline, food, water and ice, given how slowly the government responded after Hurricane Maria.
Puerto Rico's governor, Pedro Pierluisi, activated the National Guard as the Atlantic hurricane season's sixth named storm approached.
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