Hurricane Fiona moved northwestward into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday afternoon after battering the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic in the morning and knocking out power across Puerto Rico on Sunday, causing what the governor there called “catastrophic” damage.
More than 1.3 million utility customers in Puerto Rico were still without electricity on Monday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks power interruptions. Puerto Rico’s power company, LUMA, said it had restored power to about 100,000 customers but warned that full restoration could take several days.
As the storm moved out to sea, rain from Fiona’s outer bands continued to lash the island and was expected to be heavy enough to produce what the National Weather Service called “life-threatening and catastrophic flooding” through Monday evening.
The Weather Service warned that tropical-storm conditions were possible in the northern and eastern regions of the Dominican Republic through Monday evening. Tropical-storm conditions were possible in portions of the southeastern Bahamas by early Tuesday.
Fiona is expected to continue moving toward the northwest before shifting to the north-northwest, passing near the Turks and Caicos Islands or to their east on Tuesday. The storm is expected to grow stronger over the next few days and become a major hurricane — meaning a Category 3 or higher — by Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Gov. Pedro R. Pierluisi of Puerto Rico urged residents to stay home, and said in a news conference on Monday that the island had received over 30 inches of rain — more than fell during Hurricane Maria five years ago, he said.
He added that 30 rescue operations had been conducted, rescuing more than 1,000 stranded residents in 25 municipalities.
The storm was blamed for at least one death in Puerto Rico, where a man died while trying to operate a generator, government officials said. The man’s wife was also severely burned, but survived, the officials said. Another death was attributed to the storm in Guadeloupe, which was struck by the storm on Saturday. No fatalities were immediately reported in the Dominican Republic.
“We’re going through a tough moment, but our people are strong,” Mr. Pierluisi, speaking in Spanish, said at the news conference.
The storm made landfall in the Dominican Republic, meaning the eye of the storm crossed the shoreline, at 3:30 a.m. Eastern on Monday near Boca de Yuma.
The republic’s eastern provinces, home to one of the largest tourism industries in the Caribbean, took the brunt of the storm. Fiona brought 90 m.p.h. winds and heavy rain that set off mudslides, shuttered resorts and damaged highways, officials said.
The strength of the hurricane “exceeded our expectations,” said Ernesto Veloz, president of the Eastern Hotel Association, which represents resorts in the area.
A hurricane warning was in effect Monday afternoon for the Turks and Caicos and the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic from Cabo Caucedo to Cabo Frances Viejo. The north coast, from Cabo Frances Viejo westward to Puerto Plata, was under a hurricane watch.
When asked what went wrong with Puerto Rico’s power grid, Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Sunday that the agency’s priority was meeting immediate needs, and a diagnosis of what had gone wrong would have to come later.
The Atlantic hurricane season, which usually runs roughly from June through November, had a relatively quiet start, with only three named storms before Sept. 1 and none during August, the first time that has happened since 1997. Storm activity picked up in early September with Danielle and Earl, which formed within a day of each other.
The links between hurricanes and climate change have become clearer with each passing year. Data shows that hurricanes have become stronger worldwide over the past four decades. A warming planet can expect stronger hurricanes over time and a higher incidence of the most powerful storms — though the overall number of storms may drop, because factors like stronger wind shear could keep some weaker storms from forming.
Hurricanes are also becoming wetter because there is more water vapor in the warmer atmosphere; storms like Hurricane Harvey in 2017 produced far more rain than they would have without human effects on the climate, scientists have suggested. Also, rising sea levels are contributing to higher storm surges, the most destructive elements of tropical cyclones.
Johnny Diaz, Amanda Holpuch, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Eduardo Medina, Christopher Mele, McKenna Oxenden, Vimal Patel, Hogla Enecia Pérez, Víctor Manuel Ramos, April Rubin, Edgar Sandoval, Chris Stanford, Derrick Bryson Taylor and Daniel Victor contributed reporting.
