Category 1 Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico on September 19 and left the island with extensive damage to important water and power infrastructure. Fiona also left most areas on the islands with no power with the hurricane dumping over 6 to 20 inches of rain and with wind gusts of 90 to 110 miles per hour. The flooding has caused mudslides and landslides to occur damaging houses and blocking off roads causing travel issues throughout Puerto Rico. The Hurricane also hit the Turk and Caicos islands on September 20, causing damage and leaving most of the islands without power like Puerto Rico as it continues to move North. 

     So far the death toll is low with five people confirmed to have died from the flooding including two people from the Dominican Republic, one from the french island of Guadeloupe, and two people from Puerto Rico. Thankfully, there have been no deaths reported from the Turk and Caicos islands and officials have stated they have begun making repairs. The death toll is expected to rise on the other islands as officials continue search and rescue operations in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

Puerto Rico was hit the hardest as some areas of the island were still in repair after the damage that Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 hurricane caused to the island and its inhabitants back in 2017. Maria was the worst hurricane in history to ever hit the Caribbean islands in causing over 3,000 deaths and leaving Puerto Rico with a huge humanitarian crisis, it was also the most costliest hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history with costs of 94.4 billion dollars in damages. Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, commented on the damage done to certain areas of the island.

      “In many areas that had never seen flooding, there has been an unprecedented accumulation of water. In fact, in many areas it was greater than what we saw during Hurricane Maria,” 

Pierluisi said to PBS News. 

     Hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico have no running water and electricity which could lead to an unknown number of deaths and around 2,260 houses have been destroyed leaving an unknown number of people without a home to go back to.