Bermuda residents spoke of their relief and began a major cleanup on Saturday after Hurricane Gonzalo spared the Atlantic archipelago from catastrophic damage.
Gonzalo made landfall in Bermuda as a strong Category 2 storm on Friday, knocking down trees, damaging a hospital and cutting power to most of the island’s 65,000 residents.
“All in all, we came out of this storm much better than we expected,” Bermudan Premier Michael Dunkley said in a broadcast.
Photo: Reuters
Bermuda “took a licking” from Gonzalo, he said, but praised residents for effectively preparing for the storm and for staying in their homes.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
“We are a bit bruised, but we will recover from this,” Dunkley said in his remarks, which were reported by the Royal Gazette newspaper.
Gonzalo, which had killed one person and caused property damage in the Caribbean, buffeted the British overseas territory with maximum sustained winds of 175kph, forecasters said.
“Bermuda was very lucky,” Deborah Titterton-Narraway told reporters, adding that Gonzalo “should have caused more damage.”
“The structure of our homes, built of concrete brick and limestone, enabled them to withstand the winds... It could have been so much worse,” the resident said.
The community was pulling together to help families whose homes needed repair, she added.
Gonzalo blew down most of the avocados in trees dotting the island, leaving many residents with little to do other than make guacamole and hold post-hurricane parties to celebrate their escape as they waited for emergency services to clear the roads of debris.
“Bermuda made it through #Gonzalo ok! St George’s in the East has a few fallen trees & parts of roofs missing. Could be worse!” Bermuda resident Jessica Rowe said on Twitter.
Many major roads were open and despite some reported damage to the roof, the main hospital fared well, Dunkley said.
“As far as roads and infrastructure, we are in a much better position than many people might have thought,” he added.
By 3am GMT yesterday, a weakened Gonzalo was racing toward the coast of Canada’s Newfoundland, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said in a forecast, warning of tropical storm conditions.
Forecasters were also keeping watch on Hurricane Ana and had issued a tropical storm warning for parts of Hawaii, although the center said the storm was expected to weaken below hurricane strength last night and did not represent a major threat.
Tropical Storm Trudy, which drenched portions of southern Mexico, was fizzling out, it said.
Gonzalo had already been felt in the Virgin Islands, the northern coasts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and portions of the Bahamas, as well as the southeastern coast of the US.
The hurricane’s only known casualty so far was an octogenarian sailor killed in the Dutch territory of St Maarten.
Gonzalo was the seventh storm of the Atlantic season, which runs from June to next month.
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