No serious casualties or injuries by Hurricane Fiona reported in Turks and Caicos
Turks and Caicos Deputy Gov. Anya Williams said no serious casualties or injuries were reported Tuesday morning in the British Overseas territory, where wind gusts and heavy rains from a powerful Hurricane Fiona are bearing down on the island chain.
The storm has produced island-wide power outages on the eastern islands of Salt Cay, South Caicos and Grand Turk, the capital, as well as on North and Middle Caicos, while 30% of the island of Providenciales is currently without power, Williams said. The storm also disrupted cellular service.
“A hurricane warning remains in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands,” she said.
Late Tuesday, residents island-wide were told they had to still shelter-in-place due to ongoing gusts of winds and rains intermittently throughout the island.
Among the damages being reported: a missing roof at the Wellness Center in South Caicos along with a sunken boat; downed trees in North Caicos and flooding along the prison road in Grand Turk where several electricity poles were down.
Fiona was about 10 miles northwest of the island of Grand Turk when it was upgraded to a major Category 3 hurricane after midnight Tuesday.
“Hurricane force winds, heavy rainfall of four to eight inches, storm surge above normal tide will continue to be experienced on Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos for the next three to four hours with tropical storm conditions remaining throughout the day, possibly into the evening,” Williams warned around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, shortly after residents reported a calm as the eye passed, and then raging weather. “Intermittent rain and wind gusts will continue to be experienced on the islands of Providenciales, North and Middle Caicos throughout the day.”
Fiona was moving toward the north-northwest about 10 miles per hour and was expected to turn north late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning. Maximum sustained winds were about 115 mph early Tuesday morning while hurricane-force winds extended about 30 miles outward from the center.
Temard Butterfield, a vice principal of a primary school who lives on the island of Grand Turk, said residents spent “about an hour directly in the eye of the hurricane. A lot of rain and wind.”
As Fiona battered the low-lying island, Butterfield described it like “a non-stop train on the outside in the middle of thunder and lightning.”
A video shared by the disaster management office showed heavy rain slashing the structure of the Emergency Operations Center early Tuesday morning in Grand Turk.
Williams said after an all-clear is given, an aerial assessment will be conducted to assess the damages and to begin to provide assistance. Some residents on the island of South Caicos have already reported losing their roofs to the storm.
“Contact has already been made with the [British] Royal Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard to provide additional support when necessary,” Williams said, adding that the navy ship HMS Medway is scheduled to arrive in the Turks and Caicos Islands at 8 p.m. Tuesday with a crisis troop on board to assist. Helicopter support will also arrive as soon as it is safe to fly to the islands.
Williams said residents should continue to remain indoors until the national operations center announces that it is safe to go outside.
“We continue to ask that you shelter in place as Hurricane Fiona proves to be an unpredictable storm and your safety at this time,” she said.
This remained the case late Tuesday afternoon when the National Emergency Operations Center issued an advisory asking residents to remain indoors. Officials said they had had been in contact with the Bahamas Met Office, which was advising them that the weather conditions in the Turks and Caicos “remain unstable with intermittent gusts of heavy winds and rains still being experienced.”
“This is expected to continue for the next six to eight hours. Therefore, despite the perceived improvements to weather conditions, the all clear will not be issued at this time,” the advisory, issued around 4 p.m., said.
At about that same time, the hurricane was on the outskirts of North and Middle Caicos. Both islands as well as Providenciales, which had been spared much of the force of Fiona, were experiencing hurricane force winds.
“Grand Turk for the most part sustained minimal damages, flooding in majority of the low lying areas. Most electrical poles are still up,” said Butterfield, who is also a former member of parliament. At least one home, he said, had caught fire but no casualties had been reported.
“For the most part everyone is OK on the Island of Grand Turk,” he added.
There were about 165 people in shelters across the island chain.
This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 11:57 AM.
