Hurricane Fiona heads to Bermuda, 8 dead in Puerto Rico
India Today
Hurricane Fiona strengthened to a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday as it headed toward Bermuda.
Hurricane Fiona strengthened to a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday as it headed toward Bermuda after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where the storm left most people without power and up to eight dead.
After making landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday, Fiona caused devastating flooding and landslides on the island. Over the next two days, the storm gathered steam as it barreled into the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Fiona packed winds as high as 130 miles per hour (215 km per hour) on Wednesday and was expected to strengthen as it moved north toward Bermuda, though no direct hit is forecast for the British territory, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Fiona could reach Canada's Atlantic coast on Friday.
Eric Blake, acting branch chief for the NHC in Miami, said Bermuda would see high surf, storm surges, heavy rainfall and powerful winds even if Fiona kept on its current path and passed to the west of the island. Bermuda will see the worst of the storm by late Thursday, the NHC said.
"Hopefully, the core of the storm will stay west, but it could still jog east and hit Bermuda," Blake said, adding that the U.S. East Coast would experience large swells and rip currents as the storm churns toward Canada.
"This will be a big deal up there," he told Reuters, referring to Fiona's track toward Canada's Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
In Puerto Rico, where 40% of the island's 3.3 million residents were still without water and three-fourths were lacking power, authorities were trying to determine the scale of the destruction and start rebuilding.
