Hurricane Fiona: lack of drinking water, blackouts and flooding for millions

On the second day of Hurricane Fiona flooding rain has ripped through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, leaving more  than a million people without running water and dozens of homes destroyed.

The day before, the hurricane  knocked out all electricity on Puerto Rico, as winds reached 86mph (140km/h).

Though officials said some of the island's power had been restored, the rest will take days to be reconnected, according to the operator of the island's grid, Luma Energy.

Hurricane Fiona has caused severe flooding and landslides in Puerto Rico, as well as the Dominican Republic.

President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency on September 19 for Puerto Rico, allowing authorities to provide disaster relief.

Besides the complete outage of power for the 3.3 million people living in Puerto Rico, some health centers running on generators were affected by the outage.

However, electrical systems in San Juan's medical hospital complex have since been restored, according to the health secretary.

Ports were closed and flights out of Puerto Rico’s main airport were  cancelled.

At least three people have died in  the severe weather, including one in the French territory of Guadeloupe and two in Puerto Rico, according to officials.

Fiona intensified into a Category 3 storm as it moved away from the Dominican Republic's northern coast early on September 20, according to the hurricane center.

But the most powerful stages of the storm may be yet to come, as Fiona is expected to escalate into as high as Category 4 by the time it passes near or to the west of Bermuda on eve of September 22.

Hurricane conditions will likely be seen in Turks and Caicos as well as the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.

As the storm leaves Puerto Rico behind, its residents face the terrible damages caused by the flooding.

"A lot of people, more than during Maria, lost their houses now because of the flooding," Gonzalez told CNN. "Maria was tough winds. But this one, with all the rain, it just destroyed everything in the house."

Most of the damage inflicted on the island is rain-related, Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi told CNN Monday evening.

In addition to the hundreds of Puerto Rican National Guard members aiding in rescue and recovery efforts, the White House said that Biden told Pierluisi during a phone call that federal support will increase in the coming days.