The island has hours of an electricity blackout this Sunday. The phenomenon made landfall in the afternoon and advanced with winds of up to 140 km/h, leaving damage.
The hurricane fiona arrived in the early hours of this Sunday to Puerto Rico and the concern of the national authorities has increased after the winds of up to 140 kilometers per hour they will leave without light to the whole island and generate serious flooding and destruction.
The phenomenon He touched ground in the southwest of the country, near Punta Tocón, at 3:20 p.m. (local time). Since then it has progressed generating chaos throughout the territory.
Despite its strong gusts, the storm still qualifies as category 1According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC),
However, although it is the lowest rating of the five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, they assured that it is expected that “become even stronger in the next 48 hours”.
Among the first consequences that the arrival of the strong winds brought to the archipelago, the most notorious was the extended blackout which caused. The island registered the widespread loss of electricity service from shortly after 1:00 p.m.
This was reported by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the public corporation in charge of generating the service, which detailed that “it managed restart multiple generatorsAlthough they haven’t completed the network reset yet.
Overflowing rivers and destruction in Puerto Rico; the toll of hurricane fiona
Also, the hurricane generated the overflow of many riverss and consequently large floods in different parts of the country which caused several damages.
The first to overflow were the Grande de Loiza River and the Cagüitas Riverin the north and center of the island, which flooded streets and urban areas.
In a video recorded by a citizen, which later went viral on social networks, it is seen as the force with which the water of the rivers advances broke a door in half.
In addition, the authorities reported that in the mountain area and the southwest, several families they lost the roof of their houses by the gusts of wind and had to be transferred to shelters authorized by the government.
“We ask our people to stay in their homes and seek shelter if they need it. We remain under a hurricane warning. Due to its size, this storm is going to be impacting all of Puerto Rico,” the governor of the country’s capital reported at a press conference.
The arrival of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico occurs two days after the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in 2017, leaving 3,000 dead and leaving the island incommunicado and with areas without electricity for months.
In this sense, the country’s authorities, who asked people to protect themselves while the phenomenon continues and to follow the protocol for these cases, also warned about rainfall from 508 millimeters to 635 in isolated areas from Puerto Rico.
This is a lower amount than those recorded during Hurricane Maria.
“We can expect there to be havoc, but not to the level of Maria“, said Ernesto Morales, from the NWS, at the same press conference as the governor.
DS
