Nagua (Dominican Republic) (AFP) - Hurricane Fiona strengthened to a category 3 storm and moved towards the Turks and Caicos Islands after killing two people and causing floods and power outages in the Caribbean.

The hurricane is accompanied by winds approaching 185 kilometers per hour that hit the British Overseas Territory and is expected to intensify, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

"Heavy rain in the vicinity of the center of Fiona, affecting the Turks and Caicos this afternoon, with continuous heavy rain posing a threat to life," the center said in a warning, adding that forecasts expected the storm to pass near the island chain within hours.

The hurricane claimed two lives, one of whom was a man whose house was washed away in Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory, and the other in the Dominican Republic who died while he was cutting down a tree to shelter from the storm.

Dominican President Luis Abi Nader declared three provinces in the east of the country as disaster areas.

Many roads were submerged by flood waters or cut off due to uprooted trees or electricity poles, in the vicinity of the well-known resort town of Punta Cana in the province of Altagracia, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Video footage broadcast by local media showed residents of the town of Igui on the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic trying to save their belongings after the water reached waist-high.

The National Hurricane Center said "heavy rains and localized, life-threatening flash floods" would continue over parts of the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.

In Puerto Rico, the hurricane caused landslides, cut roads, uprooted trees, power lines and bridges, according to Governor Pedro Piarluisi.

The hurricane deprived nearly 800,000 people of drinking water due to power outages and flooding of rivers, according to officials.

Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017 as a result of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which severely damaged the electricity grid, which was privatized in June 2021 with the aim of solving the problem of power outages, but the island witnessed power outages again in April 2022.