Hurricane Fiona made landfall along the extreme southwestern coast of Puerto Rico, near Punta Tocon, at 3:20 p.m. ET Sunday with winds of 85 mph (140 kph).
As of the 5:00 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Fiona is about 75 miles (125 kilometers) east-southeast of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, moving to the northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Most of Puerto Rico is now under flash flood warnings as the hurricane brings torrential rainfall. The weather service in San Juan warns catastrophic flooding impacts are expected across the Cordillera and the southern half of Puerto Rico.
Jamie Rhome, the National Hurricane Center acting director, said significant flooding had already occurred, and it was likely the rain would continue through Monday morning.
“It’s basically going to park itself over the island tonight and produce very, very, very heavy rainfall,” Mr. Rhome said.
In Puerto Rico, rainfall totals could reach 12 to 16 inches, with local maximum totals of 25 inches, particularly across eastern and southern Puerto Rico, forecasters said.
The US territory lost power earlier Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us, as Fiona approached the islands as a Category 1 storm. “Puerto Rico is 100% without power due to a transmission grid failure from Hurricane Fiona,” the website said.
Governor Pedro Pierluisi, said on Twitter. “Protocols have been activated based on established plans to address this situation.”
The power company LUMA warned on Sunday that full power restoration could take several days. It said that the storm was “incredibly challenging” and that restoration efforts would begin when it was safe to do so for its 1.5 million customers.
“The current weather conditions are extremely dangerous and are hampering our ability to fully assess the situation,” it said on its website.
Many rivers on the eastern side of the island are in moderate to major flood stages. One river in the southeast has risen over 12 feet in less than seven hours and is now over 25 feet, breaking the previous record of 24.79 feet set in 2017 during Hurricane Maria.
