Hurricane Igor bore down on Bermuda yesterday after another cyclone raked Mexico, killing two people and battering the country with heavy winds and rains.
Bermuda was bracing for a “direct hit” from a “very large” Igor, which forecasters said would pass over the British overseas territory of 67,000 residents as early as today, battering it with gale force winds and heavy rains for two days.
Tropical storm conditions were anticipated by yesterday evening, with a “dangerous” storm surge due to produce significant coastal flooding, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Local forecasters said the eye of Igor, now a category two storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, would pass within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) of Bermuda.
“We have all heard the reports from the Bermuda Weather Service that this storm will be a long and punishing one and the potential for injury and physical damage is great,” Bermuda’s Minister of Labor, Home Affairs and Housing David Burch said in a statement.
At 3 p.m. GMT, Igor had sustained winds of 175 kilometres per hour expected to produce a dangerous storm surge and flooding in coastal areas, forecasters said. It was about 710 kilometres south of Bermuda.
Igor was so large that hurricane force winds extended outward up to 165 kilometres. Tropical storm force winds also were radiating up to 555 kilometres from its centre, the NHC said.
Huge swells from Igor were also due to strike the US East Coast through the weekend, while “life-threatening” surf and rip currents would gradually subside in the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, portions of the Bahamas and the island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, rescue teams scoured eastern Mexico in search for victims after Hurricane Karl hit the area as a powerful category three storm on Friday. It quickly dissipated over local mountain ranges.
In Puebla state, a 61-year-old woman and a two-year-old girl were killed after the roof of their house collapsed on them, authorities said.