LOUISA, Puerto Rico (AP) – Nelson Cirino was sleeping when Hurricane Fiona blew the roof off his home in Loiza, Puerto Rico. “I had to run down,” he said.
The storm has been directly blamed for at least four deaths in its march through the Caribbean islands, while winds and heavy rains in Puerto Rico have left most of the US mainland without power or running water.
Historic floods inundate homes in Puerto Rico as stranded people have to be rescued; Residents took shelter in schools with their pets, drivers navigated blackened roads and crops were flattened.
In the Dominican Republic, residents waded through the floodwaters surrounding their homes and worked outside their doors to clear mud-filled streets, salvaging and cleaning their homes and belongings.
Fiona strengthened to a Category 4 storm after devastating Puerto Rico on Wednesday, battering the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and was forecast to slam into Bermuda later this week.
