HAMILTON, Bermuda, (Reuters) – Power was out for tens of thousands in Bermuda this morning after Hurricane Gonzalo pummeled the island with torrential rain and howling winds through the night, but there have been no reports of serious injuries.
The eye of the strongest storm to sweep the subtropical British territory in a decade was 200 miles northeast of the island by early this morning after making landfall the night before, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Gonzalo whipped the island with maximum sustained winds of around 110 miles per hour (175 kph), forecasters said, with hurricane force winds extending out some 45 miles (72 km) from the eye.
Damage from the storm was believed to be widespread in Bermuda, a tourist destination and affluent insurance industry hub, but authorities were waiting for daylight to assess the full extent of it, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Measures Organization said early today.
The Bermuda Electric Light Co. told customers, some 31,200 of whom were without power by early Saturday morning, not to approach downed wires when inspecting damage in the morning.
The Royal Gazette newspaper reported that fallen trees had sectioned off large sections of the island’s streets.
Instruments at the Bermuda Radio Maritime Operations Center in St. Georges and at the Bermuda International Airport were knocked offline by the storm and medical facilities have also been damaged, the Hurricane Center reported.
Gonzalo roared ashore just five days after Tropical Storm Fay hit, serving a one-two punch to the island, which lies about 640 miles (1,030 km) east of North Carolina.
Gonzalo peaked on Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane, the first in the Atlantic since 2011, before weakening. It was expected to continue weakening into the weekend as it moved northward over cooler waters.
The storm was traveling at about 25 miles per hour and picking up speed as it weakened in strength, the Hurricane Center said.
It is expected to pass just to the southeast of Newfoundland on Sunday, the Hurricane Center said, adding that Canadian weather officials have issued a tropical storm watch from Arnold’s Cove to Chapel’s Cove.
Jeff Masters, a hurricane expert with private forecaster Weather Underground, said Bermuda was among the best equipped places in the Atlantic for weathering such storms, in part because of strict building codes.
Hurricane Fabian, which pummeled the island in 2003 and caused $300 million in damage, was a Category 3 storm, he said.
Earlier, Gonzalo wrought destruction in the Caribbean, tearing off roofs in Antigua, and killing an elderly sailor and damaging some three dozen vessels in St. Maarten.
