Before moving on toward eastern Canada, Hurricane Ernesto battered Bermuda on Saturday with intense gusts and heavy rain, knocking out electricity to a large portion of the British Atlantic Ocean colony.
As of Saturday night, the hurricane that made landfall on Puerto Rico earlier this week was “inching away from Bermuda” but was still producing strong tropical storm conditions, according to the National Hurricane Center, which is situated in the United States.
According to the NHC, it made landfall at 5:30 am local time (0830 GMT) with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour (137 kilometers per hour).
“We continue to pass through the southwestern quadrant of Ernesto,” the Bermuda Weather Service said Saturday evening, adding that the island was “experiencing occasional squally showers” and warning that seas would remain hazardous through the night.
Ernesto was located some 85 miles northeast of the island as of 6:00 pm local time and expected to dump seven to nine inches (175 to 225 millimeters) of rain on Bermuda overall.
“This rainfall will likely result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding to the island, especially in low-lying areas,” the NHC said.
According to Bermuda’s power company Belco, the hurricane had left about 26,000 people without electricity—more than 70% of its customers on the 64,000-person island—without power.
Pictures on social media featured flooded roads, felled trees obstructing traffic, and broken power lines from the strong winds of the storm.
Bermudians boarded up windows, filled bathtubs with water, hauled boats out of the ocean, and stocked up on food and batteries in anticipation of the storm’s arrival on Friday.
“Even though we have been downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm, we must remember that some gusts will be intense,” Minister of National Security Michael Weeks said Saturday, according to The Royal Gazette newspaper.
“There are a lot of downed wires and foliage, so the situation can be dangerous,” he added.
According to the article, bus and ferry services were halted, and several important highways were stopped.
L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda announced that it would stay closed until Sunday following the storm’s passage.
Ernesto was heading northeast and was predicted by the NHC to leave Bermuda slowly on Saturday and travel east or close to Newfoundland in eastern Canada on Monday night.
It issued a warning that into the following week, hazardous beach conditions are anticipated along the US East Coast.
