Hurricane Fiona formed Sunday as it trekked toward Puerto Rico bringing the threat of mudslides, up to 25 inches of torrential rain and potential storm surge of 1 to 3 feet.
Fiona, the third Atlantic hurricane of the season, is threatening the island days before the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a deadly Category 4 that hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2017.
One man died in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floods from then-Tropical Storm Fiona washed his home away, according to the Associated Press.
At 11 a.m. Sunday, the Category 1 hurricane was producing top winds of 80 mph as it moved west-northwest at 8 mph about 50 miles southeast of Ponce, Puerto Rico.
There are concerns about Puerto Rico’s weak power grid ahead of the storm. The lights went out briefly as Puerto Rican officials held a briefing on the storm.
As of Sunday morning, nearly 300,000 tracked residents of the island were without power, according to PowerOutage.US.
Hurricane warnings were in place for Puerto Rico and the coast of the Dominican Republic’s southern coast on Sunday as heavy rains from Fiona pummeled large sections of the Caribbean.
The U.S. Virgin Islands was no longer under a hurricane watch as of 11 a.m. Sunday.
“I think all of us Puerto Ricans who lived through Maria have that post-traumatic stress of, ‘What is going to happen, how long is it going to last and what needs might we face?’” said Danny Hernández, who works in the capital of San Juan but planned to weather the storm with his parents and family in the western town of Mayaguez.
The storm is now forecast to reach at least Category 2 strength by midweek, with top winds of 110 mph. At that point, the storm’s center is expected to be somewhere in a broad area that encompasses the southern Bahamas. It is considered unlikely to threaten Florida, according to the weather service.
[ RELATED: Stay updated with the latest forecast for tropical weather at SunSentinel.com ]
Flash and urban flooding with mudslides are expected in higher terrain, “particularly in Puerto Rico,” forecasters said.
Fiona’s hurricane-force winds extended out 30 mph from its center and its tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 140 miles.