Hurricane Fiona hit the Atlantic island of Bermuda with heavy rain and winds as it moved north toward eastern Canada on Friday, where it threatened to become one of the most severe storms in the country’s history.
Fiona had hit a number of Caribbean islands earlier in the week, killing at least eight people and powering off nearly all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million residents during a sweltering heat wave. Five days later, nearly a million customers were without power.
The storm approached Bermuda as a Category 4 hurricane but declined slightly to Category 3 as it passed west of the British mainland on Friday. The Bermuda Weather Service said in a bulletin that winds still reached 166 km/h.
Bermuda Electric Light Co, the island’s sole electricity supplier, said as of Friday morning, nearly 29,000 customers, more than 80% of its base, were without electricity.
But Michelle Pitcher, deputy director of Bermuda Air Service, said the area appeared largely unharmed.
On Friday afternoon, Hurricane Fiona was on the country’s east coast about 770 km south of Halifax, Canada, and was moving north at 56 km/h on the country’s east coast with maximum sustained winds of 215 km/h. US National Hurricane Center.
The storm was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane again on Friday, meaning it could cause catastrophic damage.
While Fiona may weaken as it moves north over cooler waters, it’s still expected to be a strong hurricane-force hurricane once it crosses Canada’s Atlantic coast, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
source: Noticias
