MIAMI (ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS) - Hurricane Humberto knocked out power lines in Bermuda on Wednesday night (Sept 18), plunging nearly the whole Atlantic archipelago into darkness, as the storm whipped the British territory with powerful winds and heavy rain.
As Humberto menaced Bermuda, an island with a population of about 70,000, another growing storm threatened tourist resorts along Mexico's Pacific coast. That storm, Lorena, strengthened to a hurricane on Thursday just offshore of Colima, Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said. The system is about 55 km south west of Manzanillo, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds 120 kph, the NHC said.
Lorena is expected to approach southern Baja California by Friday night and Saturday, the Miami-based weather forecaster added.
Even as Hurricane Humberto was moving away, the NHC forecast a prolonged period of dangerous winds through Thursday and warned that dangerous breaking waves could lead to coastal flooding overnight.
More than 28,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity by early evening, according to electricity company Belco. Flights were cancelled and some residents in the capital, Hamilton, covered windows with wooden planks and metal sheeting. Belco said it would begin restoring power on Thursday morning.
Bermuda Governor John Rankin called up 120 members of the Royal Bermuda Regiment to prepare for possible storm recovery efforts and National Security Minister Wayne Caines cautioned everyone to stay inside. Authorities had ordered early closings of schools, clinics and government offices.
Humberto's maximum sustained winds held at 195 kph and the storm was centred about 120 kilometres north of Bermuda on Wednesday night. It was moving east-northeast at 31 kph.
James Dodgson, director of the Bermuda Weather Service, warned that the storm, a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, could produce tornadoes and dangerous storm surge.
"Humberto's a big hurricane and we're looking at the conditions already deteriorating. There's some very strong winds kicking in, particularly this evening," he said.
Caines said non-emergency medical services would be closed until Thursday. Evening flights from the US and Britain were cancelled.
"We'd like to ask all of Bermuda to prepare for the storm, to know that the government and everyone is rooting for us, and we can get through this," Caines said. "We've been through this before."
Resident Saivo Goater placed boards across the sliding glass doors of his two-story dwelling, remembering back-to-back hurricanes in 2014 that ripped off parts of his roof. "I don't want to go through that again," Goater said. "It's better to be safe than sorry."
Officials ended government ferry services and were closing a major road leading to the airport on Wednesday evening. They also opened a shelter at a high school with room for 100 people. Schools were closed and ambulances on standby, a witness said.
The Atlantic storm season has picked up pace in recent weeks.
Hurricane Lorena posed an increasing threat to tourist resorts on Mexico's Pacific Coast and the Baja California Peninsula.
Forecasters said Lorena was expected to pass "near or over the coast" somewhere between the port of Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday night and Thursday, while growing toward hurricane force. The still-uncertain long-term forecast track showed it approaching the Los Cabos resort area Friday night and Saturday.
Hurricane warnings were in effect from Punta San Telmo to Cabo Corrientes.
Heavy rains were spreading onshore along the coast, the Hurricane Center said. Mexican officials voiced concern that some parts of southern Mexico, which have seen a lack of rainfall, could now get torrential rains that could result in dangerous flash floods and landslides.
In parts of Colima, Jalisco and Michoacan states, "it is forecast that the total accumulations of rain could ... represent 40 per cent of the rain for an entire year in that part of the country," said Blanca Jimenez Cisneros, director-general of Mexico's National Water Commission.
Classes were suspended in Colima as a precaution.
In Texas, the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda drenched parts of Southeast Texas, but officials in the Houston region said that so far there had been no severe problems. It was the first named storm to hit that area since Hurricane Harvey's much heavier rains flooded more than 150,000 homes around the city and caused an estimated US$125 billion (S$172 billion) in damage in Texas.
Tropical Storm Jerry also formed Wednesday morning far out in the Atlantic and was forecast to become a hurricane as it nears the outermost Caribbean islands on Thursday night or Friday.
