Hurricane Fiona “hammered” the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 3 storm after devastating Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The storm slammed Grand Turk, the chain's biggest island, on Tuesday morning and was moving closer to the main cluster of islands by afternoon.
"The Turks and Caicos right now are getting hammered with hurricane conditions," Acting US National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan told Reuters.
Over the weekend, the tropical storm knocked out power for millions of people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic after making landfall on Sunday evening.
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Fiona brought heavy rains and life-threatening flooding, cutting a path of destruction in the areas where it hit, leaving people struggling to cope with the aftermath.
At least three people died, two in Puerto Rico and one in Guadeloupe earlier in the week, officials said.
And there are fears it could worsen to Category 4 hurricane in coming days, as it approaches Bermuda.
Meanwhile in Ireland, there will be a chill in the air one night as Met Eireann have forecast a drastic 17C swing in temperatures this week.
It is looking to be a warm, humid day on Wednesday as temperatures will rise to 20C but by Saturday night they will drop again to near freezing, with much cooler temperatures of 3C expected.
On Wednesday night it will start to become rather breezy and rain will develop in Atlantic coastal counties that will move eastwards by Thursday morning.
It will be a wet start to the day on Thursday as the rain will have spread to most of the country by Thursday morning and will be heavy in places. However, the rain is set to dry up in the west and northwest by the afternoon and elsewhere overnight.
Friday will start dry and bright with sunny spells. The west and north of the country could see some showers throughout the day but most places will be dry.
Saturday will be a fresh and bright day with sunny spells and just a few passing showers. Daytime temperatures will range from 14 to 17C but overnight it will turn very cold as temperatures will drop to 3 to 6C.
It will be a largely dry day on Sunday to finish off the week but rain is expected to develop in the northwest later in the day, with temperatures of 13 to 16C.
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