MIAMI, United States. – Cyclone Fiona became a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale this Sunday during its advance near the coast of Puerto Ricoreported the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The Ponce-Isla de Gata weather station is already reporting a sustained wind of 111 km/h and higher gusts that have reached 166 km/h.
“We ask our people to stay home and seek shelter if they need it. We continue under a hurricane warning,” Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Pierluisi said at a press conference this Sunday. “Because of its size, this storm is going to be impacting all of Puerto Rico,” he added.
According to data from LUMA, the private company in charge of electricity distribution in Puerto Rico, some 344,000 people are without electricity in their homes, that is, 23% of the island’s users.
In accordance with the most recent part of the NHC, at 2:00 in the afternoon this Sunday, Fiona’s center was 80 km from the city of Ponce, in Puerto Rico.
The hurricane was moving west-northwestward at approximately 13 km/h. However, forecasters expect it to turn to the northwest on Sunday afternoon and continue on that course through Monday, when it is forecast to turn north-northwestward.
On the forecast track, the center of Fiona will pass near or over the southwestern and western region of Puerto Rico. Later, the cyclonic organism will move near the north coast of the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The NHC forecasts “additional strengthening over the next 48 hours” as Fiona moves near Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Southwest Atlantic.
For its part, the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) assured in one of your newsletters that, due to the position of the cyclonic organism and the time of year, it kept “a close watch on its evolution and future trajectory.”
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