Canada braces for Hurricane Fiona after a week of lashing wind and rain in Caribbean
After lashing parts of Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands with 140 kilometre-an-hour winds, Hurricane Fiona is expected to make landfall in Canada late Friday and Saturday, the UN said.
“Fiona is expected to affect portions of Atlantic Canada as a powerful hurricane-force cyclone…significant impacts from high winds, storm surge and heavy rainfall are likely,” said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) spokesperson Clare Nullis.
“Life-threatening surf and rip” currents in the next few days are also expected along much of the east coast of the United States, the Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada’s east coast, the UN agency noted.
At least five deaths have reportedly been attributed to the hurricane, which barrelled into Puerto Rico last Sunday. Aid agencies reported torrential rains and considerable damage including power outages, landslides, fallen trees and power lines that made roads impassable and caused a bridge to collapse in a mountainous region.
“(In) Puerto Rico, more than 40 per cent of the island was covered with 15 inches of rain, so that is 380 millimetres of rain,” said Ms. Nullis. “There was a maximum of 32 inches, which is 800 millimetres in 48 hours in some parts. I mean, these are just absolutely enormous quantities of rain.”
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) meanwhile reported that Hurricane Fiona hit Turks and Caicos Islands as a category three storm on Tuesday, before crashing into the Bahamas and then shifting towards Bermuda.
“Before that, however, Fiona left a significant impact on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, with mudslides, damage to property and widespread loss of power,” said Regis Chapman, Country Director of WFP’s Multi Country Office in the Caribbean, speaking from Bridgetown, Barbados.
He added that latest assessments indicated that the situation “can be handled by the different governments” but highlighted the chronic vulnerability of low-lying Caribbean island States, in the face of the annual hurricane season.
“Fiona was a reminder that all of the Caribbean has to stay prepared to face any level of impact from storms, and essentially countries and people here in this part of the world spend, you know, roughly half of their month, sort of on a knife's edge, wondering if this is their year.”
The devastation caused by Fiona in Puerto Rico comes five years since Hurricane Maria wreaked huge damage and loss of life there, with an official death toll of 65 and an unknown number of other fatalities.
Maria was a category 4 hurricane when it reached Puerto Rico as the strongest storm to hit the island since 1928 and by far the most destructive, WMO noted. Power was lost to the entire island and was only restored to just over half the population three months after the hurricane, while water supplies and communications networks were also severely affected.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Maria caused $90 billion worth of damage in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, making it the third most costly hurricane in US history, behind Katrina (2005) and Harvey (also in 2017).
ends
STORY: Hurricane Fiona Update – WMO, WFP
TRT: 1 mins 53s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 23 September 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his report on Sri Lanka to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his global update to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
A UN report on the Democratic Republic of Congo raises specter of war crimes and crimes against humanity in North and South Kivu, according to UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.
1
1
1
Edited News | WMO
As billions of people continue to breathe polluted air that causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths every year, UN climate experts on Friday highlighted how damaging microscopic smoke particles from wildfires play their part, travelling half-way across the world.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence made the following comment on the on-going presidential election process in Cameroon at the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
The UN Human Rights Office released a new report on Myanmar, describing death, destruction and desperation which reflect atrocities committed in 2017.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UNHCR
Afghanistan: Humanitarians scramble to reach survivors of deadly quake; response at ‘breaking point’
In remote eastern Afghanistan, aid workers are racing to assist survivors of Sunday’s devastating earthquake as the death toll continues to climb, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, repeated his urgent call for a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday, amid increased military Israeli activity in the enclave’s largest city.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Amid reports of increased Israeli military operations across Gaza City on Friday, UN aid agencies repeated urgent warnings of ongoing famine and a likely rise in preventable disease, linked to the dire living conditions in the war-shattered enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN calls for Iran to halt executions and move towards ending the death penalty.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
The UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan made the following comment on the killing of journalists in Gaza at the bi-weekly press briefing.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called on Egyptian authorities to end the practice known as “rotation”, which allows Government critics to be held arbitrarily and for prolonged periods.