Videos: Hurricane Gonzalo makes direct hit on Bermuda
Hurricane Gonzalo made a direct hit on Bermuda late on Friday as a strong category two storm, carrying drenching rains and punishing winds that plunged thousands of residents into the dark.
At 0000 GMT Saturday (8am Singapore time), the northern portion of the eye of Gonzalo, packing “damaging winds and life-threatening storm surges,” moved over the island, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
The storm had maximum sustained winds of 175kmh, and was moving northeast at 26 kmh.
The size and the strength of the hurricane can be seen in the videos above.
Gonzalo has already killed one person in the Caribbean and caused property damage on neighbouring islands before it hit Bermuda, a British overseas territory that is home to around 60,000 people.
A leading newspaper, the Royal Gazette, reported that some 30,000 people were without power, even before the full fury of Gonzalo had been unleashed on the archipelago.
Eye of the storm
Residents, whipped by winds and rains earlier on Thursday as the hurricane approached, reported a strange calm as the centre of the storm passed.
“We are definitely in the eye now, it’s completely quiet,” said Katie Titterton via text message from an apartment building near Grape Bay in central Bermuda.
“It’s pitch black outside – I can see a palm tree down, but that’s all. It’s not nice not being able to see what’s happening,” she said.
“It’s eerily calm,” said another resident, Kevin Metschnabel, also by text, from a house in the west end of the archipelago.
“But round two is coming soon,” he added.
Schools, businesses, grocery stores and government offices all closed early on hursday, and many people boarded up the windows of their homes and placed sandbags outside in preparation of potential landfall in the evening.
The stillness at the centre of Gonzalo was a contrast to its strong, destructive winds just moments earlier.
But US forecasters said the calm would be shortlived.
“Hurricane conditions are expected to resume on Bermuda in an hour or two after the southern portion of the eyewall passes north of the island,” said the NHC.
Fury
Residents braced for more fury from the storm.
“We could hear lots of noise outside – I’m guessing debris and the ocean,” Titterton said.
“It’s going to get crazy again soon as the eye passes. But for now we are making steak and cracking open a good bottle of wine.” - Bermuda resident Katie Titterton
Officials in Bermuda urged residents to stay indoors and off the roads.
“I wish everyone all the best for the next 24 hours. Good luck – and look after each other,” said Governor George Fergusson, the representative of the British crown in the archipelago.
The NHC said flooding was expected over much of the island from heavy rainfall and surges that already affected parts of the Virgin Islands, the northern coasts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, portions of the Bahamas, as well as the southeastern coast of the United States.
Bermuda’s international airport shuttered operations late Thursday, and was not expected to reopen until Saturday at the earliest.
Sailor dies
Gonzalo’s only known victim so far was an octogenarian sailor killed in the Dutch territory of St Maarten.
As Gonzalo barreled over Bermuda, Tropical Storm Ana approached Hawaii and was expected to pass south of the main island Friday and Saturday and then south of Oahu and Kauai over the weekend.
Gonzalo is the seventh storm of the Atlantic season – which stretches from June to November – and the third hurricane to slam the Caribbean this year. - AFP
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