Hurricane Fiona’s Destruction and Path

What a “wonderful” way to begin the Atlantic Hurricane Season. Hurricane Fiona storms her way into destruction.

Samantha Preckl, Reporter|October 5, 2022

Image courtesy of Mike Trenchard, Earth Sciences & Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hurricanes are unique natural phenomena full of danger for coastal communities.

Tomasz Sienicki, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons — Some would say rain is harmless. It’s just falling water, right? With high speed winds and heavy rain it’s not so harmless.

Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma and Maria. What do these all of these names have in common? They were all hurricanes with intense winds and rainfall that caused a great deal of damage. Hurricane Fiona was the first major hurricane of 2022 and makes it on the list for one of the worst hurricanes. What has Fiona done and what is the storms path?

On September 18th, 2022, Fiona hit Puerto Rico as a category 1. Nearly the whole country lost power for two weeks. As of today, thousands still are struggling with power, surviving on generators at a time when gas prices are punishingly high. In addition, there was massive structural damage and in many places residents lack safe running water.

Fiona was disastrous for Puerto Rico because they were still recovering from Hurricane Maria, which hit them in 2017. Five years ago Maria struck them as a category 5. Extreme winds and heavy rain left Puerto Rico in shambles as they were still recovering from the hurricane (Irma) before. Maria caused over 3,000 deaths due to the conditions and the destruction of their power grid. This compounded legacy of storm damage is one of the reasons why Puerto Rico has been struggling with maintaining power after Fiona.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons — Puerto Rico has dealt with so much disaster. One hurricane after another, Maria and Fiona.

President Biden and the First Lady traveled to Ponce, which is a city on the Southern Coast, on Monday October 3rd. While there, Biden promised $60 million in funds to help with the island’s recovery. Although the estimated cost of the storm damage runs into the billions, according to the FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, the money Biden promises will help aid in recovery. The goal in the funds are for projects like creating a new flood warning system and fortifying levees and walls.

From a category 1 hurricane, Fiona grew into a category 4 on Wednesday, September 21st, 2022. The storm had made her way over to the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, and Turks and Caicos. Winds were sustained at 130 miles per hour along with heavy rains. Fortunately, Fiona never made landfall on Bermuda, though they did received large storms and lots of rain. From Bermuda, Canada was on her path.

US National Hurricane Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — A hurricane’s path can be predicted but it doesn’t always mean it will 100% accurate.

By Friday, September 23rd, 2022, hurricane Fiona was south of Halifax, Novia Scotia. The storm moved at 35 mph with sustained winds of 130. Eventually it weakened and turned into a tropical-cyclone. As it approached, the province declared a state of emergency and tropical storm warnings were issued for the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and New Brunswick, as well as in parts of Quebec. Fiona left behind a trail of devastation and many of coastal homes collapsed. A few structures toppled into the sea or in the surrounding flood water. Trees in the area uprooted and hit a few homes due to the intense storm surge.