Hurricane Fiona heads to Turks and Caicos after storm devastates Puerto Rico

Hurricane conditions were slamming Grand Turk, the British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday after the government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas.

Hurricane Fiona raked the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico.

Hurricane conditions were slamming Grand Turk, the British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday morning after the government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas.

The storm was centered just 15 kilometres from the island, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 45 kilometres from the centre.

“Storms are unpredictable,” Premier Washington Misick said in a statement from London, where he was attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety.”

Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour and was moving north-northwest at 17 kph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, which said the storm is likely to strengthen further into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.

It was forecast to weaken before running into easternmost Canada over the weekend.

The broad storm kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio.

Another death was linked to a power blackout — a 70-year-old man was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.