Much of Puerto Rico still without power one day after hurricane landfall

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Much of Puerto Rico was still without power as of Monday afternoon, a day after Hurricane Fiona hit the U.S. territory.

More than 1.3 million customers in Puerto Rico remained without power, according to poweroutage.us, a website that collects, records, and aggregates live power outage data from utilities all over the United States, while a power utility has reenergized some circuits after an island-wide blackout caused by the hurricane.

"Catastrophic flooding" continues across much of Puerto Rico, according to the latest public advisory issued by the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said on Monday that at least two people have died at shelters on the island, adding that there are currently no reports of anyone missing due to the hurricane.

The NHC said Fiona, the sixth named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, is moving into the Atlantic and is likely to strengthen.