Sharjah24 - Reuters: Hurricane Fiona was churning north on Monday evening after bringing torrential rain and powerful winds to the Dominican Republic and triggering a total power outage in neighboring Puerto Rico, where at least two people died.

The Category 2 hurricane will likely become a Category 3 as it moves across warm Caribbean waters toward the Turks and Caicos. Fiona was upgraded to a Category 2 with winds of 105 mph (169 kph) by the National Hurricane Center on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, the center of Fiona is expected to pass near or to the east of the archipelago, which is subject to a current hurricane warning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Tropical storm conditions were also expected in the Bahamas.

After strafing Puerto Rico, Fiona made landfall in the Dominican Republic near Boca Yuma at 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the NHC. The center of the storm reached the northern coast of Hispaniola before noon.

It is the first hurricane to score a direct hit on the Dominican Republic since Jeanne left severe damage in the east of the country in September 2004.