Hurricane Fiona targeted the Turks and Caicos Islands after leaving 1 million people in the Dominican Republic without water and much of Puerto Rico without power.

Fiona, Category 3 The storm, with sustained winds of 115 mph, hit Turks and Caicos around 11 a.m. ET about 40 miles from Grand Turk Island. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said the heavy rain could cause “life-threatening flooding” in parts of the British territory of about 38,000 people in the afternoon. he said.

The Dominican Republic, which is still dealing with Fiona’s destructive path – the storm’s outer bands could still cause flooding after it crosses the Caribbean nation on Monday – and Puerto Rico, where Fiona passed a day earlier, caused near-blackouts and unseen damage. since then Hurricane Maria It ran aground five years ago Tuesday, officials said.

At least four people died due to severe weather late last week, including one in the French territory of Guadeloupe, which Fiona strongly criticized; two in Puerto Rico; One in the Dominican Republic, according to officials.

Puerto Rico, some parts of the rain will be seen only More than 30 inches, Fiona forced rivers to overflow and high water to pool in some parts of the area, flooding homes, streets and farmland. The flowing waters swept away a bridge, carrying its structure down, one video shows. Mudslides blocked some roads leading inland from coastal areas, a CNN crew saw.

Damage is catastrophic in the central, southern and southeastern regions of the territory, in the Governorate of Puerto Rico. Pedro Pierluisi said on Tuesday.

The governor said most of the population should have power by the end of Wednesday, but greater damage in the southern part of the island means restoration there will take longer.

An estimated 1.17 million of the island’s roughly 1.47 million utility customers were still without power as of Tuesday. PowerOutage.usnotes that updated information on recovery efforts is limited.

In Puerto Rico, a 58-year-old man was swept away by a swollen river behind his home in Comerio, and another man in his 30s died in a fire when he tried to pour gasoline into a generator while it was cranking. officials said.

Fiona gets stronger as she pushes north

Fiona got stronger Category 3 The storm moved away from the northern coast of the Dominican Republic on Tuesday morning.

This is the first major hurricane of the year — a Category 3 or higher Atlantic hurricane season.

Heavy rain around the center of Fiona, the center of the storm, will threaten the Turks and Caicos Islands with “sustained life-threatening flooding” on Tuesday afternoon. he said.

Where does Fiona go from here as she gets stronger and stronger?

According to the hurricane center, those islands could get 4 to 8 inches of rain on top of what they received earlier Tuesday, as well as storm surges — ocean water pushed ashore — of 5 to 8 feet.

Hurricane conditions are possible in the Turks and Caicos by Tuesday afternoon, and tropical storm conditions — winds of at least 39 mph — are expected to spread to the southeastern Bahamas by Tuesday morning.

Strengthening is expected as Fiona returns from Turks and Caicos. It could become a Category 4 storm early Wednesday with sustained winds of 130 to 156 mph over the Atlantic Ocean. It is forecast to pass near or well west of Bermuda late Thursday or early Friday and may still be a Category 4 at that time, forecasters said. say.

Fiona could make landfall in eastern Canada as a hurricane over the weekend. It’s too early to know exactly where and how strong it might be.

Fiona devastates Puerto Rico

Tuesday marks five years since Hurricane Maria catastrophic landfall Some people in Puerto Rico and those who lived through the 2017 crisis say Fiona’s flood devastation could be even worse.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a business owner in Puerto Rico, told CNN that his neighborhood still hadn’t finished recovering from Maria when Fiona hit. But this time, he says, the flood caused more damage to their houses.

“A lot of people — more than Maria — have now lost their homes … lost everything in their homes because of the flooding,” Gonzalez told CNN on Monday. “Maria was strong winds. But it destroyed everything in the house with all the rain.”

Jetsabel Osorio stands in her home damaged by Hurricane Maria five years ago before Fiona arrived in Loiza, Puerto Rico.

Water supplies have also been cut off for most, officials said, as overflowing rivers affect filtration processes and must be backed off before safe treatment can be resumed. About 60% of customers on the island were without running water Tuesday morning, the area’s water and sewer department said.

Pierluisi said Tuesday that more than 1,200 people were staying in about 70 shelters on the island. Emergency crews battled incessant rain to rescue about 1,000 people by noon Monday, the major said. Gen. Jose Reyes, adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard.

The governor said Tuesday that school buildings will be inspected to make sure it’s safe for students to return to classes in the coming days.

A man looks down a flooded street after Hurricane Fiona passed through the Juana Matos neighborhood of Catano, Puerto Rico.

In addition to hundreds of members of the Puerto Rican National Guard helping with rescue and recovery efforts, the White House said Monday, President Joe Biden told Pierluisi during a phone call. federal support will increase in the coming days.

“As damage is assessed, the president said the number of support personnel will increase significantly,” the White House said.

Governor of New York. Kathy Hochul also announced that the state will send 100 state troopers to help with relief efforts in Puerto Rico. He also said teams from the New York Power Authority are on hand to help restore power.

More than 1 million customers were left without water service in the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, where Up to 20 inches of rain On Monday, the operations director of the country’s emergency department, Juan Manuel Mendez, said emergency workers on the ground had brought about 800 people to safety. At least 519 people were taking shelter in the country’s 29 shelters on Monday, he said.

At least 1,018,564 customers across the Dominican Republic were without access to running water as of Monday afternoon as 59 hydrants were down and several others were partially operational, according to national emergency management official Jose Luis German Mejia.

Some in the Dominican Republic were also without power Monday, with 10 power circuits down, emergency management officials said. It is unclear how many people are affected by the outages.

CNN’s Leila Santiago in Puerto Rico and CNN’s Nikki Carvajal, Robert Shackelford, Melissa Alonso, Artemis Moshtagian, Taylor Ward, Holly Yan and Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.