Hurricane Fiona continues to strengthen with winds over 100 mph

Fiona, the third Atlantic hurricane of the season, is forecast strengthen into a major Category 3 hurricane by Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph.

The storm’s center is expected to pass well to the east of the Bahamas, but will cause tropical storm conditions there, eventually arcing in a northeasterly direction Tuesday night, then paralleling the east coast in the general direction of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Fiona moved over the Dominican Republic early Monday as its outer bands continued to deluge Puerto Rico, where rain could total up to 30 inches. The hurricane’s center was moving away from the Dominican Republic Monday night and over the Atlantic north of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The center of Fiona brought up to 15 inches of rain and 3 to 5 feet of storm surge to the Dominican Republic on Monday. The National Hurricane Center warned that the eastern Dominican Republic could experience life-threatening flash and urban flooding through early Tuesday.

Fiona will then move near the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday, where storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 3 to 5 feet above normal tide levels Monday night into Tuesday, experts said. The southeastern Bahamas should see tropical storm conditions by early Tuesday. Fiona is expected to pivot north-northwest on Tuesday and north on Wednesday.

At 8 p.m. Monday, the Category 2 hurricane was 130 miles southeast of Grand Turks Island, after having passed through the eastern end of the Dominican Republic on Monday morning.

Maximum sustained wind speed increased up to 105 mph from 100 mph earlier Monday evening. It is currently moving northwest at 10 mph. The storm is expected to strengthen during the next few days, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 30 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 140 miles.

Fiona’s path is expected to “miss significant encounters” with mountainous terrain in the Dominican Republic, according to AccuWeather, which will allow the storm to continue to gain in intensity.

Fiona caused an island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico on Sunday, striking on the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which hit Puerto Rico 33 years ago as a Category 3 storm, and just two days before the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a devastating Category 4 storm that struck on Sept. 20, 2017.

“It’s important people understand that this is not over,” said Ernesto Morales, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Juan. He said flooding reached “historic levels,” with authorities evacuating or rescuing hundreds of people across the island.

Puerto Rico was no longer under a tropical storm watch Monday evening, but heavy rains are expected to continue through Monday night, the center’s 8 p.m. update said.

“The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic,” said Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.

The storm also caused numerous landslides and tore the roofs off homes, including that of Nelson Cirino in the northern coastal town of Loiza.

“I was sleeping and saw when the corrugated metal flew off,” he said as he watched rain drench his belongings and wind whip his colorful curtains into the air.

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.

There were 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 earlier in the weekend.

Only about 30% of customers had running water on the island, according to officials.

“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.

Meanwhile in the Dominican Republic, the government’s emergency center reported downed trees and power poles. Nearly 800 people were evacuated to safer locations, and more than 500 were in shelters, officials said. The storm also triggered mudslides that damaged highways.

The eastern provinces, home to many of the country’s beach resorts, took the brunt of the storm — a potential blow to a tourism industry that is crucial to the country’s economy, but still recovering from a slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forecasters also are tracking two other disturbances in the central Atlantic.

A system over the central subtropical Atlantic had moderate odds of developing into a tropical depression in the next two to five days, the center’s 8 p.m. advisory said. The system could develop in the next few days as it moves to the north or northeast before it runs into less favorable conditions. Another in the central tropical Atlantic could develop while it moves over the far eastern Caribbean toward the end of the week and weekend, but the odds remain low.

The next storm to form would be Gaston.

The 2020 hurricane season set a record with 30 named systems, while 2021′s season was the third-most active with 21 named systems. An average year calls for 14 named storms.

[ RELATED: Stay updated with the latest forecast for tropical weather at SunSentinel.com ]

Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.