Hurricane Fiona is threatening more deadly flooding in the Turks and Caicos islands today, after leaving most residents of Puerto Rico without power and running water, and leaving more than 1 million without running water in the Dominican Republic.
Fiona reached Category 3 status early this morning, with sustained winds of more than 111 mph (nearly 180 km/h), was centred about 60 kilometres off Grand Turk Island around 11 a.m. ET.
CNN reported that Fiona's heavy rains were threatening "life-threatening flooding" through the afternoon in parts of the Turks and Caicos.
At least four people have died the severe weather, including one in the French territory of Guadeloupe, which Fiona slammed late last week; two in Puerto Rico; and one in the Dominican Republic, according to officials.
As of Monday afternoon, at least 1,018,564 customers across the Dominican Republic had no access to running water as 59 aqueducts were out of service and several others were only partially functioning, according to Jose Luis German Mejia, a national emergency management official.
Some were also without electricity, but it's unclear how many people are impacted by the outages.
This is the first major hurricane -- Category 3 or higher -- of this year's Atlantic hurricane season.
Strengthening is expected as Fiona turns from the Turks and Caicos. It could be a Category 4 storm by early Wednesday over the Atlantic. Bermuda and the Canadian Atlantic provinces remain under threat from the storm.
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