News

Massive Power Outage Hits Puerto Rico Following Hurricane Fiona

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A massive power outage has hit Puerto Rico following Hurricane Fiona.

Landfall occurred after Hurricane Fiona pounded the Dominican Republic on Monday morning.

One area north of the city of Ponce reported over 2 feet of rain in the last 24 hours. And southern Puerto Rico can expect another 4 to 6 inches of rain or more early this week.

According to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, Fiona will leave the island deluged with 12 to 30 inches of rain.

“These rainfall amounts will continue to produce life-threatening and catastrophic flooding along with mudslides and landslides across Puerto Rico,” the hurricane center said.

Fiona has already turned deadly in the Caribbean. At least one death was reported in the heavily-damaged city of Basse-Terre, the capitol of the French territory of Guadeloupe, the vice president of the territory’s environmental agency said.

The National Hurricane Center has said Fiona could become a major hurricane by Wednesday, with winds reaching 111 mph and that would make Fiona the first major hurricane of the year in the Atlantic.

According to officials, more than 1.4 million Puerto Rico power customers — such as homes and businesses — have lost electricity.
The entire island was in the dark early Monday, PowerOutage.us reported.

Per reports, it could be days before power is restored, the main power utility in Puerto Rico said Sunday, as daily high temperatures after Monday are forecast to reach the mid-80s to 90s.

Several transmission line outages contributed to the blackout, LUMA Energy said. Power will be restored “gradually,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a Facebook post.

By late Monday morning, a bit of good news from island’s capital: The power system came back up for hospitals in San Juan’s medical complex, Puerto Rico Health Secretary Dr. Carlos Mellado López said. The complex is the island’s most important and stretches across 227 acres, according to the Health Administration of Puerto Rico.

“The power system at all the hospitals in the Medical Center Complex has been restored,” Mellado tweeted on Sunday night. “Our patients are safe and receiving the medical care they need.”

Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico

Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku

I am a Ghanaian Broadcast Journalist/Writer who has an interest in General News, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle and many more.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
Close
Close