The Albany Gazette - Bermuda braces for direct hit from Hurricane Ernesto

NYSE - LSE

RELX	-0.69%	46.29	$
NGG	-0.71%	66.5	$
RBGPF	100%	58.94	$
CMSD	-0.31%	24.813	$
RYCEF	0%	6.98	$
SCS	2.7%	12.97	$
VOD	-0.31%	9.66	$
RIO	-0.19%	69.7	$
CMSC	-0.16%	24.7	$
BCC	0.44%	138.9	$
AZN	-0.59%	77.47	$
GSK	1.16%	38.82	$
JRI	-0.15%	13.28	$
BTI	0.51%	35.29	$
BCE	-0.39%	33.71	$
BP	1.28%	32.88	$

Bermuda braces for direct hit from Hurricane Ernesto

WEATHER 16.08.2024

Bermuda braces for direct hit from Hurricane Ernesto / Photo: Handout - NOAA/GOES/AFP

Bermuda was on high alert Friday as residents brace for Hurricane Ernesto, with heavy rain and flooding expected to wallop the island at the weekend, meteorologists and officials said.

Text size:

The cyclone, which lashed Puerto Rico earlier this week leaving 600,000 customers without power, was churning in the Atlantic ocean and heading north towards Bermuda bearing sustained winds of 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, according to the US government's National Hurricane Center.

"Ernesto is forecast to be a large hurricane near Bermuda on Saturday and maintain hurricane strength through the weekend," the NHC said in its latest advisory.

The large storm, currently a Category 2 hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, is set to strengthen overnight.

It is expected to produce as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain in parts of the British territory as well as a dangerous storm surge, both of which "will likely result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding," the NHC added.

Gale force winds were expected by late Friday, with the Bermuda government urging residents to prepare and warning on social media site X that the hurricane was forecast to be "directly over" the island by 11:00 am (1400 GMT) Saturday.

Bermudians were hauling boats out of the ocean and water, boarding up windows, filling bathtubs with water and stocking up on batteries and food supplies.

As the territory's emergency officials met Thursday, Minister of National Security Michael Weeks urged residents to complete their hurricane preparation as soon as possible.

"Time is running out," he said, according to the Royal Gazette newspaper.

Some key roads were closing Friday ahead of the storm, and bus and ferry services were being suspended, it added.

(O.Robinson--TAG)

Featured

Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night

Roasted by summer temperatures too hot for the beach, Dubai has turned to an innovative solution: opening them at night, complete with floodlights and lifeguards carrying night-vision binoculars.

A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help

The only road to Pensacola, in the remote mountains of western North Carolina, is now a muddy path through deep, twisting gorges. Its main bridges were swept away last week in floods fueled by devastating Hurricane Helene -- and a cold winter is coming.

Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown

Blocking a road to protest inaction against climate change could soon be punishable with prison in Italy as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government cracks down on demonstrations, even peaceful ones.

After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild

When Hurricane Helene roared over the mountains before dawn last week, it brought a maelstrom of water that rose to the mailbox of Shelby Holzhauser's little white house on the banks of the Swannanoa River.