Two deaths, hundreds of thousands without electricity, thousands displaced, a dozen towns cut off from communication… The Dominican Republic began digitizing this Tuesday as Fiona’s damage unfolded across the country’s roads.
While Dominican president Luis Abinader stated today that a complete assessment of the damage will take about five days, several figures are already known: at present, 10,840 people remain displaced, 2,168 homes are affected with 613 destroyed, and roughly 317,000 Emergency Operations Center (COE) users face a loss of power, according to the latest bulletin. In addition, more than 70 aqueducts are damaged, 68 of which are out of service; 23 roads, three level crossings and sixteen bridges—two of which have collapsed—were affected.
There have been two fatalities so far, including a 72-year-old man who was struck by a tree and an 18-year-old woman who was killed when a utility pole collapsed while she rode a motorcycle.
In response to the crisis, Abinader canceled a trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, and government officials visited the northeast and northern regions hardest hit by Fiona after the storm reached Puerto Rico. On Monday the storm reached the Dominican Republic as a Category 1 hurricane. The Dominican authorities announced measures to mitigate the cyclone’s effects and pledged special funding for mayors in affected areas on Thursday. Two special operations centers were opened, one in Samaná in the northeast and the other in Higüey in the east, to assist the regions most in need.
A central concern is the electricity supply, which also affects drinking water services, so crews are working to restore both as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, residents are doing what they can to salvage belongings from damaged homes. In El Seibo, residents in the Giandiana neighborhood are sun-drying clothes, furniture, drawers, and even refrigerators to reuse them. One of the affected residents, Juleisi de la Rosa, described how river waters entered her home and soaked everything, sharing with a tone of surrender and humor: “A few zinc roof plates are gone, but we got up and moved through them.” She recounted leaving at four the morning and returning to find everything underwater, the river rising and flooding the property as it moved toward the house, with family members helping to clean gas stoves in the street. The woman lives alone with her young daughter.
The Dominican Republic remains under indirect influence from hurricane Fiona, with impacts felt especially in the eastern, northeastern, and southeastern areas, as well as in the Central Cordillera, including La Altagracia, San Juan, Peravia, San José de Ocoa, San Cristóbal, and Greater Santo Domingo. Forecasts indicate these conditions are likely to persist into the local afternoon and late-night hours, according to the National Meteorological Office.
In light of this, the Emergency Operations Center issued a yellow alert across nineteen provinces and a green alert in eight provinces. Additionally, beach use, water sports, and mountain recreational activities have been suspended nationwide, and all coastal vessels were required to remain in port.
Fiona intensified to a Category 3 at its peak on the Saffir-Simpson scale, reaching that level on Tuesday, and marked the third Atlantic hurricane of 2022 to affect the region. The storm made landfall in the Dominican Republic at about 03:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Monday, then moved onward and left the country around 13:00 local time (17:00 GMT), after crossing the North Atlantic.