Hurricane sweeps across the Caribbean

San Juan, Puerto Rico－Hurricane Fiona continued its slow and devastating march northward after slamming the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday and leaving a trail of destruction in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The storm was blamed for causing at least four direct deaths in its march through the Caribbean, where it unleashed torrential rain in Puerto Rico, leaving a majority of the island without power or water as hundreds of thousands of people scraped mud out of their homes following what authorities described as "historic" flooding.

Power company officials initially said it would take a couple of days for electricity to be fully restored, but then appeared to backtrack late Tuesday night.

"Hurricane Fiona has severely impacted electrical infrastructure and generation facilities throughout the island. We want to make it very clear that efforts to restore and re-energize continue, and are being affected by severe flooding, impassable roads, downed trees, deteriorating equipment and downed lines," said LUMA, the company that operates power transmission and distribution.

The hum of generators could be heard across the island as people became increasingly exasperated, with some still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm five years ago, killing an estimated 2,975 people in its aftermath.

Luis Noguera, who was helping clear a landslide in the central mountain town of Cayey, said Maria left him without power for a year.

Long lines were reported at several gas stations across Puerto Rico, and some pulled off a main highway to collect water from a stream.

'Worse' experience

"We thought we had a bad experience with Maria, but this was worse," Noguera said.

Parts of the island had received more than 64 centimeters of rain and more had fallen on Tuesday.

By late Tuesday, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 300,000 of the island's 1.47 million customers, while water service was cut to more than 760,000 customers.

Deanne Criswell, head of the United States' Federal Emergency Management Agency, traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to boost local response efforts.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency on the island and deployed a couple of teams to the US territory.

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones: La Altagracia, home to the popular resort of Punta Cana, El Seibo and Hato Mayor.

Authorities said on Tuesday that more than 10,000 people had been moved to "safe areas", while about 400,000 are without electricity.

Agencies Via Xinhua