The islands of Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos and Middle Caicos were experiencing island-wide power outages Tuesday night, Williams said, adding restoration efforts will begin as soon as it’s safe.
The storm will slowly move away from the islands Tuesday night and Wednesday and begin approaching Bermuda Thursday, where it’s expected to dump up to 3 inches of rain and create “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” the center said. A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued by the Bermuda Weather Service.
Swells from the storm will also spread westward over the next day or two across the southwestern Atlantic, toward the northwestern Bahamas and the US east coast, the hurricane center said.
Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico dealing with deadly aftermath
At least two people died in the severe weather in the Dominican Republic, according to Major General Juan Manuel Méndez García, director of the country’s emergency operations center. Aurielys Esther Jimenez, 18, was traveling by motorcycle when she was struck by a power pole that fell due to strong winds, the director said. She was taken to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
Officials there on Monday also confirmed the death of a man in Nagua, in northeastern Dominican Republic, who died after powerful winds knocked down a tree that hit him. There was also one death reported in the French territory of Guadeloupe, which Fiona hit late last week, and two in Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, 58-year-old Gilberto Ayala Aponte was swept away by a swollen river behind his home in Comerío. A second man, 70-year-old José Cruz Román, died in a fire accident that occurred when he was trying to put gasoline in his generator while it was turned on, officials said.
The damage is catastrophic in the territory’s center, south and southeast regions, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said Tuesday.
More than 2,000 people were working to restore power, Mario Hurtado, the chief regulatory officer for utility company LUMA Energy, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Tuesday. LUMA operates Puerto Rico’s power grid.
Fiona forecast to continue strengthening
Hurricane conditions continued in Turks and Caicos Tuesday night and tropical storm conditions — winds of at least 39 mph — were expected over parts of the southeastern Bahamas for the next several hours, the hurricane center said.
Over the weekend, Fiona might make landfall in eastern Canada as a hurricane. It is too early to know exactly where or how strong it might be.
Fiona leaves behind devastated Puerto Rico
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a business owner in Puerto Rico, told CNN that his neighborhood had still not finished its recovery from Maria when Fiona struck. But this time, he says, the flooding brought even more damage to their homes.
“A lot of people — more than (during) Maria — lost their houses now … lost everything in their houses because of the flooding,” Gonzalez told CNN on Monday. “Maria was tough winds. But this one, with all the rain, it just destroyed everything in the house.”
Water service also was interrupted for most, because river flooding affected filtration processes and must recede before safe treatment can resume, officials said. On Tuesday morning, about 60% of customers on the island had no running water, the territory’s aqueduct and sewer authority said.
More than 1,200 people were staying in about 70 shelters on the island Tuesday, Pierluisi said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced the state would send 100 state troopers to assist relief efforts in Puerto Rico. She also said teams from New York Power Authority are available to help with power restoration.
More than 1 million customers without water service in Dominican Republic
More than 2,100 households were affected by the storm and more than 600 homes destroyed, Méndez García said in a Tuesday update. And at least 23 roads and 18 bridges sustained damage, leaving 12 communities cut off.
As of Tuesday evening, more than 1.85 million customers were without running water as a result of the storm’s damage, he said, adding that 68 aqueducts were out of service across the Dominican Republic, with a handful of others only partially working.
Some in the Dominican Republic were also without electricity Monday as 10 electric circuits went offline, emergency management officials said. It’s unclear how many people are impacted by the outages.
Correction: This story has been updated with the correct age of the second victim in Puerto Rico, after updated information from officials.
CNN’s Leyla Santiago in Puerto Rico and CNN’s Nikki Carvajal, Robert Shackelford, Artemis Moshtaghian, Taylor Ward, Holly Yan, Christina Maxouris, Jamiel Lynch and Amanda Musa contributed to this report