Bermuda's minister warns that the third hurricane of this year's Atlantic hurricane season is “not a storm to be taken lightly.”
Hurricane Ernesto has made landfall in Bermuda and is expected to lash the British island territory with strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and life-threatening flooding, local authorities said.
The Category 1 storm was directly over Bermuda, home to about 64,000 people, at 6 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) on Saturday, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h (87 mph).
Ernesto is expected to slowly move away from Bermuda throughout the day, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
It will then move north-northeastward on a track that would take it near or east of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador by Monday night, the NHC said.
Ernesto previously hit the northeastern Caribbean, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power or water in Puerto Rico after passing over US territory as a tropical storm.
According to the NHC, dangerous waves and rip currents are also possible in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Atlantic Canada during the next few days.
August 17: #Ernesto The hurricane made landfall in Bermuda at 4:30 a.m. AST. Strong winds, dangerous storm surge, and life-threatening flooding are expected to continue in Bermuda today. For the latest updates, visit
Radar image courtesy of Bermuda Weather Service image.twitter.com/xAUVd4jaUr
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) August 17, 2024
In preparation for the storm's arrival in Bermuda, authorities suspended public transportation and closed the airport on Friday night.
“Hurricane Ernesto poses a serious threat to our community,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Weeks. “This is not a storm to be taken lightly.”
By Friday afternoon, Ernesto's winds had knocked out power to 5,400 of Bermuda's 36,000 customers, power company BELCO said. The company said it had called its repair crews back from the field because it was too dangerous to work.
In Puerto Rico, more than 180,000 people were still without power more than two days after the storm hit.
Another 170,000 people were left without water as the National Weather Service issued another severe heat advisory, warning of “dangerously hot and humid conditions.”
“It’s not easy,” Andrés Cabrera, 60, who lives in the northern coastal city of Carolina and had no water or electricity, told The Associated Press.
Like many in Puerto Rico, he couldn’t afford to buy a generator or solar panels. Cabrera said he relied “on the wind coming in from the street” for help.
In the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands, crews were also working to restore power, with 80 percent of customers back online.
Ernesto is the fifth named storm and third hurricane of this year's Atlantic hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year due to record ocean temperatures.
Between 17 and 25 named storms and between four and seven major hurricanes are forecast.
