putin is facing another round of military setbacks. and at our nation s border, the government says arrests have now exceededn just one year. we ll talk to the chair of a congressional hispanic conference, raul ruiz about that and much more. and we begin with our top story this morning, hurricane fiona strengthening to a category 3 storm after devastating parts of the caribbean leaving at least three dead in puerto rico and one dead in the dominican republic. now, the storm is now barrelling up the atlantic taking aim at turks and caicos. next, take a look at the intended path of this of this storm. meanwhile, let s take a look at puerto rico: we re expecting an update later this hour right there after fiona made landfall on sunday as a category 1 hurricane unleashing massive floods. two feet of rain and landslides. the island s power grid ravaged again, four out of five people still without power this morning. over 800,000 people do not have access to running water. th
that number, thankfully is now up to 19%. still a lot of people without power, jose, but things seem to slowly be improving. the question is will it happen fast enough. you mentioned that urgent need for drinking water. two-thirds of this island right now does not have drinking water including the neighborhood i m standing in now. this is one of many neighborhoods across southern puerto rico that were devastated. this tree down, power lines down. this neighborhood up until late last night was flooded overnight. thankfully the flood waters reseeded. residents here are just starting to clean up. we just spoke with a family over here in this home, they went in for the first time since their home was flooded on sunday. they said that they had never seen this much water, jose, even during hurricane maria. that s something we re hearing over and over again in some parts of the puerto rico. while hurricane maria, which by the way as you mentioned hit the island five years ago today, that stor
hurricane unleashing massive floods. two feet of rain and landslides. the island s power grid ravaged again, four out of five people still without power this morning. over 800,000 people do not have access to running water. this as just today is the five-year anniversary of hurricane maria. more than a thousand people have been rescued including in manatee where this 91-year-old woman was trapped in her home when the flood waters rushed into her neighborhood. joining us now from salinas puerto rico is nbc news national correspondent gabe gutierrez. good morning. what are the conditions there there morning and, boy, this island has been hit so hard again. hi, jose, good morning, yes, as you mentioned, i want to start with that update that we go from luma energy in the last few hours. late last night only 11% of this island had power.
still working. during hurricane maria, that was an even bigger challenge right after that storm hit. still the recovery process here will be long. the question is how long. the governor hopes to have power back within days. we ll see if that happens. gabe gutierrez in salinas puerto rico. thank you so much. with us now to take a closer look at the response is a fema associate administrator for response is and recovery. thank you so much for being with us this morning. what can you tell us about the situation on the ground in puerto rico right now? thank you, jose, and thank you for focusing on puerto rico today. the situation on the ground, we re in lock step with the commonwealth ensuring that all life safety missions are activated and supported. we re also laser focused on power restoration. as your report mentioned right before this, you know, that is our number one priority. we always plan for contingencies in these types of situations. whenever a hurricane hits, we expect powe
you see some of the detective stays left behind in puerto rico. the numbers you re giving us are jaw dropping. 1.2 million without power, 81% of the island without power, and then 800,000 people with no access to drinking water. have you seen a response by government officials to this disaster? i mean, are you seeing in the streets people helping? take a look at these images. i mean, there are areas that were completely under water for hours. reporter: yeah, that s exactly right. not just for hours. really for days. remember, jose, this storm, it made landfall in puerto rico on sunday. it was still raining late into last night, and frankly, even this morning we got some you know, some outer rain showers from the outer bands of the storm and still dumps some more water here. think about that. there are some parts of puerto rico that got more than 30 inches of rain. that is rivaling hurricane maria. again, as my cameraman here