Massive Hurricane Fiona continues assault while Tropical Storm Gaston forms, new system targets Caribbean

Hurricane Fiona, the first major hurricane of the season, may not be headed toward Florida, but the power it emits may have a dangerous effect on the Sunshine State’s beaches, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Gaston formed in the Atlantic and another system approaching the Caribbean could become the next tropical depression.

As Fiona gains power in the Atlantic, it’s generating huge swells of 50-foot waves near its center, said NHC deputy director Michael Brennan. A moderate risk of rip currents is in effect from South Florida and up to the Carolinas as well as portions of New England, Brennan said.

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“As those waves propagate toward the U.S. East Coast, they’re going to result in dangerous surf and wind current conditions,” Brennan said. “If you’re planning to go to the beach look for any warning flags and pay attention to any advice given by lifeguards or local officials. We don’t want to lose people in the ocean from a storm passing.”

For now, Fiona isn’t quite finished with the Caribbean and is hammering the Turks and Caicos with storm surge 5 to 8 feet above normal tide levels. While also hitting Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic with residual rain after barreling through the island territories with heavy rain. Parts of the Dominican Republic were inundated with 20 inches of rain. Puerto Rico received a historic 30 inches, Brennan said.

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However, Fiona is starting to move northward away from the islands. The storm is headed out to the warm Atlantic where it is predicted to become a powerful Category 4 hurricane.

As of the NHC’s 8 p.m. advisory Fiona remains a powerful major Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph and higher gusts located about 75 miles north of North Caicos Island and 775 miles southwest of Bermuda heading north-northwest at 8 mph.

Hurricane Fiona cone of uncertainty as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (National Hurricane Center)

A tropical storm watch for Bermuda was issued late Tuesday while the Turks and Caicos remain under a hurricane warning and the southeastern Bahamas under a tropical storm warning.

The system is expected to gain in strength as it heads north to Category 4 status with 140 mph sustained winds and 165 mph gusts by Thursday before passing to the west of Bermuda. It’s projected to threaten landfall in Canada in Nova Scotia as an extratropical system with hurricane-strength winds by Saturday.

As of 8 p.m., Fiona’s hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles with tropical-storm-force winds up to 150 miles. Heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding are still affecting portions of the Dominican Republic as the storm barrels toward Grand Turk.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Gaston formed Tuesday evening a thousand miles west-southwest of the Azores with maximum winds of 40 mph moving north-northeast at 17 mph. It’s expected to remain a tropical-storm strength as it approaches the Azores before hanging a left and heading northwest while becoming extratropical on the weekend.

Tropical Storm Gaston cone of uncertainty as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (National Hurricane Center)

As for the Caribbean, island residents are still dealing with the damages left in Fiona’s wake, but also may need to contend with what is projected to become the next tropical depression.

A tropical wave a few hundred miles east of the Windward Islands heading west at 15 to 20 mph is likely to form into the next system with the next few days, the NHC said on Tuesday afternoon. The system became more organized since Monday and will bring heavy rainfall and gusty winds to the islands starting Wednesday. The NHC gave it a 70% chance of formation in the next two days and 90% chance within the next five.

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It could grow into Tropical Storm Hermine.

Father east, the NHC also began tracking a system expected to come off the coast of Africa into tropical waters and become a tropical wave. Some development could occur as it approaches the Cabo Verde Islands through the end of the week. The NHC gives it a 40% chance of formation in the next five days.

While storms keep brewing, it’s the leftovers of Fiona that are giving islanders issues now.

Hurricane Fiona made landfall Sunday on the extreme southwestern coast near Punta Tocon, Puerto Rico and then made a second landfall on the Dominican Republic’s far eastern coast on Monday before growing in strength and whipping the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday.

Throughout Monday, both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico were reeling from the storm’s effects, where at least two people were reported dead. A 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio, according to the Associated Press. 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.

Rain was still lashing parts of Puerto Rico Tuesday, where the sounds of people scraping, sweeping, and spraying their homes and streets echoed across rural areas as historic floodwaters began to recede, according to the Associated Press.

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In the central mountain town of Cayey, where the Plato River burst its banks and the brown torrent of water consumed cars and homes, overturned dressers, beds, and large refrigerators lay strewn in people’s yards Tuesday, the AP reported.

Fiona’s landfall came just two days prior to the anniversary of Hurricane Maria and the devastation that it brought to the island territory. Maria’s damages were so great that power to some areas of Puerto Rico wasn’t restored until nearly a year after the storm passed. The reconstruction of Puerto Rico’s power grid started recently. Outages are a daily occurrence, and fires at power plants have occurred in recent months.

Fiona’s massive rain totals caused landslides and rising floodwaters with rushing rivers of brown water that enveloped cars, first floors, and even an airport runway in the island’s southern region.

Since the start of the storm, National Guard troops have rescued more than 900 people, Gen. José Reyes told a news conference.

The storm washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. Large landslides also were reported, with water rushing down big slabs of broken asphalt and into gullies.

Water service was cut to more than 837,000 customers — two-thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.

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Fiona pummeled cities and towns along Puerto Rico’s southern coast that are still recovering from a string of strong earthquakes that hit the region starting in late 2019, with several schools still shuttered and debris to be removed.

U.S. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in the U.S. territory and has been in frequent contact with Pierluisi since.

“Today, I spoke with Gov. Pierluisi to address the immediate needs of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Fiona,” Biden said in a tweet. “We discussed federal personnel working to assist the island’s recovery, and I assured the Governor that we’ll increase support substantially in the coming days.”

Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, authorities closed ports and beaches and told most people to stay home from work. The government reported one death from falling trees.

Health centers were running on generators — and some of those had failed. Health Secretary Carlos Mellado said crews rushed to repair generators at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where several patients had to be evacuated.

The storm left behind heavy road damage in Guadeloupe with video on Twitter showing fast-moving floods flowing down streets up to washed-out roads and streets flooded up to 2 feet washing away cars. Projected rainfall had been more than 8 inches in some parts of the island.

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Fiona became the season’s third hurricane following hurricanes Daniella and Earl earlier this month. What had been forecast to be an above-average tropical season was mostly quiet in July and August before picking up steam on Sept. 1.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.