Hurricane Fiona (2022)

Hurricane Fiona made landfall in southwestern Puerto Rico near Punta Tocon on September 18, 2022, as a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds. Despite being a much weaker storm than Hurricane María (Category 4, 155 mph), Fiona caused island-wide power failure and devastating flooding.

Impact:
- 100% of the island lost power — again
- 25 confirmed deaths
- Over $2.5 billion in damage
- Catastrophic flooding, particularly in the southern and central mountain regions
- Communities in Salinas, Cayey, and Utuado were isolated by landslides and flooding
- Water service disrupted for hundreds of thousands

The Significance of Another Island-Wide Blackout: Fiona's most devastating revelation was that despite five years and billions of dollars in recovery funding since Hurricane María, Puerto Rico's electrical grid was still so fragile that a Category 1 hurricane could cause total failure. Under LUMA Energy's management (since June 2021), the grid had not been significantly hardened.

The federal government had allocated approximately $12 billion for electrical grid restoration through FEMA and HUD programs. LUMA Energy had received $1.5 billion under its 15-year contract. Yet when Fiona arrived — a relatively modest hurricane by Caribbean standards — the entire grid collapsed.

Federal Response: The Biden administration's response was significantly faster and more robust than the Trump administration's response to María, with a presidential major disaster declaration issued before the storm even arrived. However, the speed of the response underscored by contrast how inadequate the María response had been.

Fiona demonstrated that the cycle of disaster-response-rebuilding-disaster is perpetuated by colonial infrastructure policy: the grid was rebuilt cheaply because Puerto Rico's colonial status provides no political incentive for Congress to invest properly.