Hurricane Fiona was headed northward after it bore down on the tiny Turks and Caicos archipelago on Tuesday and caused severe damage on Puerto Rico and then the Dominican Republic. 

Fiona hit the  Grand Turk —  the Turks and Caicos's biggest Island — earlier in the day, before slamming its main cluster of islands several hours later.

The power category 3 storm dumped heavy rains,  triggering floods on the Caribbean archipelago. 

By Tuesday night, the hurricane had moved 75 miles north of Turks and Caicos and was strengthening with wind speeds of 125 mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. 

Fiona is headed towards Bermuda and is forecast to strike late Thursday as a Category 4 storm, the second highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

No casualties in Turks and Caicos

No deaths or severe injuries were reported in Turks and Caicos but residents were asked to continue to shelter in place. 

Turks and Caicos is a group of islands east of Cuba and north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. 

The British Overseas Territory was home to just over 31,000 people according to its last census in 2011 but its population is growing rapidly. A July 2021 estimate put the islands' likely total population at more than 55,000 people. 

"Hurricane Fiona has proven to be an unpredictable storm," Anya Williams, the deputy governor of Turks and Caicos, said during a broadcast. 

Williams added that power blackouts were reported on five islands and that Britain's Royal Navy and the US Coast Guard were standing by to provide aid.

As the storm continued to whip the archipelago late on Tuesday, only a few downed trees and electric posts were reported. But  telecommunications on Grand Turk were severely affected, officials said. 

"Fiona definitely has battled us over the last few hours, and we're not out of the thick of it yet,'' new agency AP quoted Akierra Missick, minister of physical planning and infrastructure development, as saying. 
 

 

At least 5 dead as hurricane gathers strength

At least five people have died in the storm, four in Puerto Rico and one in Guadeloupe earlier this week, according to US officials.

Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday afternoon, dumping huge amounts of rainfall on it and then on the Dominican Republic on Monday. The NHC warned of continued heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding in areas that have now endured the worst of the hurricane. 

A public health emergency was declared by US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra  for Puerto Rico on Tuesday night, which allows freeing up of federal funds and equipment to assist the island.

Meanwhile in the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces —  La Altagracia, El Seibo and Hato Mayor — to be disaster zones.

According to the US website poweroutage.us, nearly 80% of Puerto Rico remained without power on Tuesday. Officials had warned it could take days to reconnect the entire island of some 3.3 million people. 

A national emergency management official from the Dominican Republic told CNN on Tuesday that more than 1 million Dominicans were without running water. 

dvv, msh/aw(AFP, AP, Reuters)