Hurricane Fiona brings flooding, outages, suffering

STORY: Torrential rain and wind gusts up to 85 miles an hour battered the Dominican Republic on Monday (September 19) as Hurricane Fiona made its way through the Caribbean.

It made landfall overnight, leaving behind a path of destruction for residents to wake up to.

“It destroyed everything; everything has been affected. It all has to be rebuilt, all this.”

The Category 1 hurricane battered Puerto Rico on Sunday (September 18), triggering a total power outage and killing at least one person.

Up to 30 inches of rain was recorded in some areas, producing catastrophic flooding. Downed trees and mudslides have cut off access to some roads, and many are without basic necessities.

"We're looking for gasoline, water, ice - all the supplies necessary for getting through this. We were hoping it wouldn't be so big, but well, it was bigger than we expected and you have to make do with what you have."

Fiona is now making its way north, gathering strength as forecasters predict it will become a Category 3. Turks and Caicos Islands is under a hurricane warning, and the Bahamas is bracing for tropical storm conditions in the coming day.