SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Ernesto made landfall in the small British Atlantic territory of Bermuda early Saturday morning while residents were in emergency situations.
The sprawling Category 1 storm was directly over the wealthy territory at 6 a.m. Saturday, packing maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (140 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned of strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and significant coastal flooding.
Bermuda is expected to receive 150 to 225 millimetres of rain. “This rain is likely to cause significant, life-threatening flash flooding, particularly in low-lying areas of the island,” it said.
Due to the storm’s size and slow movement, hurricane-force winds are expected to continue through Saturday afternoon, with tropical storm-force winds continuing well into Sunday, the Bermuda government said. Ernesto is moving toward the north-northeast at about 15 km/h.
The NHC reported life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along the east coast of the United States and said they would reach Canada later today. Ernesto is expected to be near or east of Newfoundland through Monday night.
Bermuda-based power utility BELCO said 31% of its customers were without power late Friday, in what the company described as an “active state of emergency.”
“Our teams are no longer working in the field as it is no longer safe for them to do so. They will now rest until it is deemed safe for them to begin recovery work,” BELCO added.
In preparation for the storm, authorities in the wealthy British territory had suspended public transport and closed the airport on Friday evening.
“Hurricane Ernesto poses a serious threat to our community,” said National Security Secretary Michael Weeks. “This storm is not to be taken lightly.”
Bermuda is an archipelago of 181 tiny islands, whose total land mass is roughly the size of Manhattan.
According to AccuWeather, it is rare for the eye of a hurricane to make landfall in Bermuda. Since 1850, only 11 of 130 tropical storms that came within 100 miles of Bermuda have made landfall, according to AccuWeather.
The island is a well-known offshore financial center with robust construction and, due to its high altitude, storm surges are not as problematic as on lower-lying islands.
Ernesto had previously struck the northeastern Caribbean and left hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without power and water after it swept across the US territory as a tropical storm.
More than 180,000 of nearly 1.5 million households were still without power more than two days after the storm, and another 170,000 were without water after the National Weather Service issued another severe heat advisory, warning of “dangerously hot and humid conditions.”
“It’s not easy,” said 60-year-old Andrés Cabrera, who lives in the northern coastal town of Carolina and had no water or electricity.
Like many others on the island, he could not afford a generator or solar panels. Cabrera said he was only “reliant on the wind coming from the street” for relief.
Officials said they hoped to restore power to 90 percent of Puerto Rico’s nearly 1.5 million homes by Sunday, but did not say when power was expected to be fully restored.
Of the 152 critical infrastructure sites without electricity that are prioritized, 36 are now supplied with electricity, said Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, a private company responsible for electricity transmission and distribution on the island.
Work was also underway to restore power in the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands; 80% of customers were back online.
Ernesto is the fifth named storm and the third hurricane of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year as oceans are record-breakingly warm, forecasting 17 to 25 named storms and four to seven major hurricanes.
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This article has been corrected to indicate the conversion of precipitation in millimetres instead of centimetres.
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