Hurricane Gonzalo made a direct hit on Bermuda as a strong category two storm, knocking down trees, damaging a hospital and plunging most of the island’s terrified residents into the dark.
Gonzalo, which had already killed one person and caused property damage in the Caribbean, buffeted the British overseas territory in the Atlantic with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour, forecasters said.
By 0900 GMT on Saturday, Gonzalo had torn its way over Bermuda and was about 190 miles northeast of the island — home to about 65,000 people — and moving quickly away, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said in its latest forecast, downgrading it to a tropical storm. The island’s only newspaper, The Royal Gazette, reported that 31,200 homes — or a majority of Bermudians — were without power.