 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
SAN SALVADOR, Puerto Rico (AP) — Fiona, a Category 4 hurricane, pounded Bermuda with heavy rains and winds early Friday as it swept by the island on a route forecast to have it approaching northeastern Canada late in the day as a still-powerful storm.
Authorities
in Bermuda opened shelters and closed schools and offices ahead of Fiona.
Premier David Burt sent a tweet urging residents to “take care of yourself and
your family. Let’s all remember to check on as well as look out for your seniors,
family and neighbors.”
The Canadian
Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane
Center said Fiona should reach the area as a “large and powerful post-tropical
cyclone with hurricane-force winds.”
“It’s going
to be a storm that everyone remembers when it is all said and done,” said Bob
Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane
Centre.
The U.S.
center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) late
Thursday. It was centered about 195 miles (315 kilometers) west of Bermuda,
heading north-northeast at 21 mph (33 kph).
Hurricane-force
winds extended outward up to 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the center and
tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 275 miles (445 kilometers).
Fiona so far
has been blamed for at least five deaths — two in Puerto Rico, two in the
Dominican Republic and one in the French island of Guadeloupe.
Hurricanes
in Canada are somewhat rare, in part because once the storms reach colder
waters, they lose their main source of energy. and become extratropical. But
those cyclones still can have hurricane-strength winds, though with a cold
instead of a warm core and no visible eye. Their shape can be different, too.
They lose their symmetric form and can more resemble a comma.
Robichaud
said at a news conference that modelling projected “all-time” low pressure
across the region, which would bring storm surges and rainfall of between 10 to
20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches).
Amanda
McDougall, mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said officials were
preparing a shelter for people to enter before the storm arrived.
“We have
been through these types of events before, but my fear is, not to this extent,”
she said. “The impacts are going to be large, real and immediate.”
Dave
Pickles, chief operating officer of Nova Scotia Power, said it expected
widespread power outages.
Before
reaching Bermuda, Fiona caused severe flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico,
leading U.S. President Joe Biden to say Thursday that the full force of the
federal government is ready to help the U.S. territory recover.
Speaking at
a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in New York,
Biden said, “We’re all in this together.”
Biden noted
that hundreds of FEMA and other federal officials are already on the ground in
Puerto Rico, where Fiona caused an island-wide blackout.
More than
60% of power customers remained without energy Thursday and a third of
customers were without water, while local officials said they could not say
when service would be fully restored.
As of
Friday, hundreds of people in Puerto Rico remained isolated by blocked roads
five days after the hurricane ripped into the island. Frustration was mounting
for people like Nancy Galarza, who tried to signal for help from work crews she
spotted in the distance.
“Everyone
goes over there,” she said pointing toward crews at the bottom of the mountain
who were helping others also cut off by the storm. “No one comes here to see
us. I am worried for all the elderly people in this community.”
At least
five landslides covered the narrow road to her community in the steep mountains
around the northern town of Caguas. The only way to reach the settlement was to
climb over thick mounds of mud, rock and debris left by Fiona, whose
floodwaters shook the foundations of nearby homes with earthquake-like force.
At least
eight of the 11 communities in Caguas were completely isolated, said Luis
González, municipal inspector of recovery and reconstruction.
It was one
of at least six municipalities where crews had yet to reach some areas. People
there often depend on help from neighbors, as they did following Hurricane
Maria, a Category 4 storm in 2017 that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Danciel
Rivera arrived in rural Caguas with a church group and tried to bring a little
cheer by dressing as a clown.
“That’s very
important in these moments,” he said, noting that people had never fully
recovered from Hurricane Maria. “A lot of PTSD has reared its head these days.”
His huge
clown shoes squelched through the mud as he greeted people, whose faces lit up
as they smiled at him.
Associated
Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington, Seth Borenstein in New York, Rob
Gillies in Toronto and Maricarmen Rivera Sánchez in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
contributed.