Hurricane Fiona hit the Dominican Republic on Monday (September 19th) after causing "catastrophic" flooding and damage in Puerto Rico, its Caribbean neighbor, where it left residents without power and continued to cause heavy rainfall.

Several roads were flooded or cut by falling trees or electric poles around the resort town of Punta Cana in the eastern Dominican Republic, where the electricity supply was interrupted, according to journalists from AFP.

Since Monday morning, 789 people have been forced to leave their homes to go to "safe areas", General Juan Méndez García, director of the Emergency Operations Center, told reporters.

Winds were blowing up to 150 km/h and Fiona was expected to strengthen further "over the next two days" to become a Category 3 hurricane on Tuesday (on the Saffir-Simpson scale of up to 5), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), based in Miami.

Fiona is now heading to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

"At full speed"

The hurricane, which made landfall in the Dominican Republic early on Monday, "passed at full speed," Vicente Lopez, who runs Bibijagua beach in Punta Cana, told AFP, reporting destroyed businesses.

Strong winds were also sweeping the northern town of Nagua, AFP found.

Videos published by the local press showed residents of the coastal town of Higüey (east) in water up to their waists, trying to put personal belongings under cover.

In Puerto Rico, where the hurricane first passed and a tropical storm warning remained in effect, "the damage to infrastructure...and homes was catastrophic," the governor said. Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, during a press conference.

Fiona caused landslides, downed trees and power lines, made roads impassable and swept away a bridge in the town of Utuado.

A man died "calcined" by putting fuel in a lit generator, according to the authorities.

"Unfortunately, we are expecting more rain all over the island today and tomorrow," Puerto Rico's governor said, urging people not to venture out into the streets.

"In many areas, which had never had floods, there was an accumulation of water without precedent", "more than what we saw during Hurricane Maria", explained Pedro Pierluisi.

Emergency state

More than 800,000 people, according to authorities, were also left without a drinking water service.

"We are without electricity and without water," Elena Santiago, an anesthetist at Aibonito hospital (center), told AFP.

Fiona's passage "was violent," she explained.

"The hospital runs on a generator, we only deal with emergencies."

The entire territory of Puerto Rico, which has more than three million inhabitants, was without electricity as the hurricane approached.

By Monday, power had been restored to 100,000 people, according to the governor.

US President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency.

He spoke with the island's governor on Monday and said the number of federal personnel already working to help the territory, currently at more than 300, would increase "significantly."

With AFP

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