As Hurricane Fiona first hit the Dominican Republic, it only continues to get stronger. Moving to a category 4 hurricane. Fiona took 2 lives in the Dominican Republic when it first struck, including the severe rain that led to intense flash flooding and the very intense winds. An 18-year-old was killed by a falling electric pole, and an older man was killed by a falling tree. Fiona then moved and hit Puerto Rico, and took out most of their power and running water. It hit Puerto Rico with over two feet of rain, and took two lives. One man died after drowning by a powerful river, while the other man died in a generator fire. Fiona is expected to hit the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Saturday.

People in the Dominican Republic think that Fiona hit much harder than Maria in 2017. To compare Hurricane Fiona to Hurricane Maria, let’s start off by looking at how powerful the storms both were. In 2017, Maria started as a category 4 hurricane, with 155 mph winds. It then moved to a category 5 hurricane, striking winds at 175 mph. Maria took 3,059 innocent lives. It caused over $91.61 billion in damage, and efforts to help Puerto Rico just started before Hurricane Fiona hit. They were not fully recovered before another catastrophe hit them.

I feel extremely bad for the people of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Hopefully, Hurricane Fiona will end very soon, and not cause as much damage as Hurricane Maria.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/09/21/how-fiona-maria-compare-wind-rain/

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/weather/hurricane-fiona-puerto-rico-dominican-republic-wednesday/index.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-fiona-track-path-2022-09-21/