Puerto Rico hit by Hurricane Fiona, 5 years after Hurricane Maria
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CBS) – Emergency responders are working to provide life-saving relief after Hurricane Fiona slammed into Puerto Rico. The strong winds and flooding tore through its coast.
The people of Puerto Rico just can't get a break. Many are still recovering from Hurricane Maria 5 years ago.
Now, they are forced to deal with damage from Hurricane Fiona
"We are seeing tragedy unraveling in front of our eyes again," Carmen Yulín Cruz, former mayor of San Juan, said.
Puerto Rico is seeing catastrophic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Fiona according to the National Hurricane Center.
Its acting director says he's not sure he's ever seen rivers rise this quickly in the U.S.
"The water will rise in the order of minutes and hours, and can just take you completely off-guard," Jamie Rhome, acting director of the National Hurricane Center, said.
The center says parts of Puerto Rico could see up to thirty inches of rain by the time the storm is over.
Power has been out on the entire island.
The five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria hitting Puerto Rico is Tuesday.
The island received billions of dollars in federal funding for its electrical grid after that storm.
Power officials say the system is better now but it's still frail.
One FEMA official says that agency has learned from Maria. It has four warehouses around the island with food, water and generators.
And, a federal emergency declaration before the storm mobilized more than 300 agency employees.
"The planning efforts we undertake during those blue skies days can be brought to bear when the rain falls," Anne Bink, FEMA's associate administrator for response and recovery, said.
One major Puerto Rican power company says some people could be in the dark for days as the water keeps rising.
"I can hear the pain and the desperation, and you can probably hear it in my voice," Cruz said.
The storm is now headed towards the Dominican Republic and CBS3 was told it could make landfall in the Bahamas by Tuesday.