By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, HAMILTON, Bermuda, Sat. Oct. 18, 2014: More than 28,000 people on the island of Bermuda remained without power this morning in the aftermath of Hurricane Gonzalo.
The island hit Bermuda last night and into the wee hours of this morning with winds of over 100 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm has left many downed trees and caused flooding island wide. Gonalzo made landfall at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time along the south-central coast of the island.
The Bermuda Electric Light Company via Facebook this morning said approximately 28,850 customers are without power. Of that number, the most were in Central Bermuda with 10,870 followed by 10,080 in West Bermuda and 7,050 in East Bermuda. The City of Hamilton oly had 850 reported outages.
However, BELCO said damage from the storm “is widespread, so restoration will not be quick or easy.”
“We are also assessing damage and responding to reports of downed poles and other equipment, such as transformers. Again, there is a great deal of damage, so it will take time for crews to get to each location to make downed equipment safe,” a company statement added.
Meanwhile, The Royal Gazette reported that many areas “on the island is passable because of downed trees and other debris.”
“Important things need to be done and we encourage everyone to stay off the road. The roads are so littered with debris and hardly any roads are two-way,” Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva said Saturday morning. “There’s no way we can have traffic trying to travel in two directions.”
Local officials also urged residents to take caution if they go outside because of the risk from downed power lines and flooding.
