Hurricane Fiona live path and track as Puerto Rico power outage hits 1.3m homes

Hurricane Fiona has devastated some of the smaller islands in the eastern Caribbean as well as Puerto Rico. French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron tweeted that he’s recognized a “state of natural disaster” on the island of Guadeloupe, a French overseas region.

Hurricane Fiona is forecast to turn north as it crosses the Dominican Republic, bringing it back over the Atlantic.

From there, the storm is expected to make a close brush with the southeastern end of the Bahamas before moving parallel to the east coast of the US up to Bermuda.

Fiona could hit Bermuda on Thursday, at which point is forecast to be nearly a Category 4 storm.

Fears are mounting that millions of Puerto Ricans could be without power for days to come in the wake of Hurricane Fiona.

As of Monday morning, more than 1.3 million homes were still without power, according to PowerOutage.US – down from about 3.3 million immediately after the storm swept over the island.

Conditions remain far too dangerous for crews to begin work restoring power across large swaths of the island, which was hit by up to 30 inches of rain in some areas in a matter of hours.

Power company LUMA warned Sunday that it could take several days for a full power restoration amid “incredibly challenging” conditions for repair workers.

Hurricane Fiona made landfall on the eastern shore of the Domican Republic early Monday morning after lashing Puerto Rico with up to 30 inches of rain.

The island nation is bracing for strong winds and heavy rains throughout Monday before brushing past the southeast Bahamas, as well as Turks and Caicos into Tuesday.

As it continues its path, Fiona could pose a significant threat to Bermuda and may sweep into parts of Atlantic Canada later this week. It is not expected to track near the US East Coast.

A metal bridge in Puerto Rico that was built in the aftermath of 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria has been ripped away again by Hurricane Fiona.

Videos shared by reporters, bystanders and local politicians showed the bridge on Puerto Rico Highway 123 in the town of Utuado being torn out of its moorings and washed downriver by surging flood waters.

Some videos showed metal railings on the side of the road, attached to the bridge, pulled out of the ground and dragged along with it.

Hospitals and health centres across Puerto Rico were running on generators on Sunday and Monday morning as authorities and the public still processed the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona.

According to reports from the territory, some of those power generators had failed as electricity was restored slowly to the island of roughly 3 million people.

Health Secretary Carlos Mellado said crews rushed to repair generators at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where several patients had to be evacuated to antother facility, according to the Associated Press. 

Karen Green, the Democratic nominee for Florida’s US House District, called for better disaster response capabilities in her home state and across the United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona.

Saying that Americans increasingly need infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather events, Ms Greened added that it was also “because of disasters such as Hurrican Fiona that we need to combat climate change”.

While the weekend hurricane cannot solely be linked to a warming climate, such events are more likely.

A disaster declaration for Puerto Rico was approved by US President Joe Biden on Sunday, the White House said.

The move will make more federal resources available for the island territory as it recovers from the weekend’s extreme weather event.

A San Jose group has decided to send help to Puerto Rico as more than a million residents struggle to survive amid power outages and floods.

Known as the Puerto Rican Civic Club of San Jose, the group is collecting donations to provide gas generators and solar lights to hospitals, orphanages and shelters in the hurricane-hit island nation, reported NBC News.

“Everything is flooded. All the rivers are completely floated, everything is completely destroyed once again,” said the president of the club Maria Acevedo.

Kathryn Ramos, another member of the group, says providing power to keep the refrigerators running is critical. “A lot of elderly people are in situations where they can’t keep their insulin cold. And it is causing them to get sick.

“And the issues that stem around that is ultimately you have a lot of people die.