Category 3 hurricane Fiona hit the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Fiona, a Category 3 hurricane, hit Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean after several deaths, floods and severe property damage on the way through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

“Hurricane Fiona has been an unpredictable storm,” British Overseas Territory Deputy Governor Anya Williams told the media.

heavy rain and wind the hurricane resulted in no casualties or serious injuries in Turks and Caicos IslandsWilliams announced this, urging residents to take cover.

fiona It is located approximately 50 km northeast of the city of North Caicos, third island the largest in the archipelago, and is advancing with maximum winds close to 185 km/h, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) indicated in its latest bulletin.

Still Hurricane left five dead: one in French overseas territory Guadeloupetwo in Puerto Rico and two others in Dominican Republic.

The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has declared three provinces of the country as disaster zones: La Altagracia, where the popular seaside resort of Punta Cana is located; Seibo and Hato mayor.

Several roads were flooded or cut by falling trees or electric poles in the vicinity of the village. Punta Canawhere the power was cut off, an AFP journalist at the scene confirmed.

Local media footage shows residents of Higuey, on the east coast, standing waist-deep in water trying to save their personal belongings.

“It happened very quickly,” Vicente López told AFP on Puntacanera Beach in Bibijagua, lamenting the destroyed businesses in the area.

The NHC warned that heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding will continue Tuesday in parts of the Dominican Republic, a day after Fiona arrived in the country.

Damage ‘devastating’ in Puerto Rico

AT Puerto Ricowhere the hurricane made landfall on Sunday, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi called that Tuesday “devastating” storm damage.

“It’s hard, there’s been a lot of damage, and we’re still assessing the extent of it,” he said at a press conference.

fiona It caused landslides, blocked roads and toppled trees, power lines and bridges as it passed through an island of three million people that is a free annexed territory of the United States.

Authorities said nearly 300,000 users had electricity in their homes Tuesday afternoon (20% of the total) following a general power outage caused by the hurricane on Sunday.

And about 760,000 people were left without drinking water in their homes due to power outages and flooding of rivers.

Jorge Cintron, a resident of La Parguera on the country’s southwest coast, suffered property damage to his home and his business, a beauty salon.

“The experience was terrible. It was very impressive to feel the wind and see everything rise,” he told AFP by phone.

“He destroyed the patio that I just redid. That’s where I cried, because after the sacrifices you have to make to have your stuff, it’s not easy to lose it. But I’m about to get up. If I have a life and everything is fine with my mother, I will come again,” said the 57-year-old man.

After years of financial troubles and a recession, in 2017 Port Rich declared bankruptcy, the largest ever by a local administration USA.

Later that year, a double whammy of two hurricanesIrma and Maria added to the misery by destroying the island’s power grid, which had suffered from serious infrastructure problems for years.

The network was privatized in June 2021 to address the power outage, but the problem persisted and the entire island was blacked out earlier this year.

AFP