Hurricane hits Dominican Republic

NAGUA, Sept 20 (AFP): Hurricane Fiona dumped torrential rain on the Dominican Republic on Monday after triggering major flooding in Puerto Rico and widespread power blackouts in both Caribbean islands.
The storm strengthened to a Category Two hurricane late Monday, said the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), which forecast continuing rains and possible new catastrophic floods during the night in both Puerto Rico and in the eastern Dominican Republic.
The NHC said the hurricane was still strengthening and warned that "life-threatening and catastrophic flooding and mudslides" were possible.
Several roads were flooded or cut by falling trees or electric poles around the Dominican resort of Punta Cana where the electricity was knocked out, an AFP journalist on the scene said.
President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones: La Altagracia-home to Punta Cana-El Seibo and Hato Mayor.
Footage from local media showed residents of the east coast town of Higuey waist-deep in water, trying to salvage personal belongings.
With 18 of the island's 32 provinces on red alert, nearly 800 people were sheltering in safe areas, according to emergency services.
Fiona was packing maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (155 kilometers per hour), according to the NHC, which expected it to strengthen Tuesday to a Category Three storm-making it this season's first major Atlantic hurricane.
After passing close to Turks and Caicos late Monday or early Tuesday, the storm is expected to track north later in the week, out into the ocean-although it could come perilously close to tiny Bermuda.
In Puerto Rico-where the rain was still beating down-Governor Pedro Pierluisi said the storm had caused catastrophic damage since Sunday, with some areas facing more than 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rainfall.