Bermuda battens down as Hurricane Ernesto approaches
Adds information details of activity on the south shore in paragraph 6, adds storm's direction in paragraph 7
By Nicola Muirhead and Tyler Clifford
BERMUDA, Aug 16 (Reuters) -Hurricane Ernesto churned towards Bermuda on Friday as a powerful Category 2 storm likely to produce a foot (30 cm) of rainfall over the weekend and trigger life-threatening flooding and storm surges in the British island territory.
Ernesto, centered about 180 miles (290 km) southwest of the archipelago at 2 p.m. Atlantic time (1 p.m. ET/1700 GMT), was packing sustained winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph) and had the potential to drop up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain.
It is likely to make landfall on Saturday morning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, making conditions ripe for storm surges and flash flooding by the afternoon.
Warren Darrell, 52, of Smith's Parish, said he had stocked up on groceries for his family, battened down the hatches and removed furniture from the lawn in preparation for Ernesto's arrival
"I'm ready to play games with my daughters and wait," he said. "I'm a bit worried, a little bit worried, but I think we'll overcome. I think we'll be fine."
Winds, torrential rains and rip currents began picking up just before noon at John Smith's Bay on Bermuda's Main Island. The government planned to close a causeway bridge linking it to St. George's Island on Friday night. A number of tourists and locals were seen roaming around the south shore, while a person was windsurfing as waves grew in size before 2 p.m.
Ernesto was crawling at roughly 14 mph (22 kph) on a north-northeast trek, the NHC said, gradually weakening and slowing by Saturday before picking up speed and potentially regaining strength later on Sunday.
Bermuda, a collection of 181 small islands clustered more than 600 miles (965 km) off the Carolina coast, can expect hurricane conditions to persist until Sunday, NHC Director Michael Brennan said in an online briefing.
Fewer than a dozen hurricanes have made direct landfall on Bermuda, according to records dating back to the 1850s.
PUERTO RICO POWER OUTAGES
Earlier this week, Ernesto grazed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, bringing heavy rainfall to the U.S. Caribbean territory and cutting power to about half of its 1.5 million customers.
About 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power as of Friday morning, according to LUMA Energy, the island's main electricity distributor.
Puerto Rico's power grid is notoriously fragile. The island has experienced prolonged power outages in recent years when weather systems much more powerful than Ernesto rolled through.
Since Hurricane Irma seven years ago, Puerto Rico's grid has been in a rebuilding process, and residents have increased their use of renewable power, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Despite work to shore up the grid, and $1 billion in federal funding, the island's main power organizations have failed to balance budgets or stabilize the central power network, said Tom Sanzillo, the institute's director of finance.
"The grid in Puerto Rico remains in a state of disrepair," he said.
Ernesto is the fifth named Atlantic storm of what is expected to be an intense hurricane season. Slow-moving Debby hit Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane just last week before soaking some parts of the Carolinas with up to 2 feet of rain.
Reporting by Nicola Muirhead in Bermuda and Tyler Clifford in New York; Additional reporting by Laila Kearney and Liya Cui; Editing by Frank McGurty, David Gregorio and Sandra Maler
Eng oxirgi yangiliklar
Javobgarlikdan voz kechish: XM Group korxonalari har biri faqat ijro xizmatlarini koʻrsatadi va onlayn savdo platformamizdan foydalanish huquqini beradi, bu odamga veb-saytda yoki veb-sayt orqali mavjud boʻlgan kontentni koʻrish va/yoki undan foydalanishga ruxsat beradi hamda uni oʻzgartirishga moʻljallanmagan va uni oʻzgartirmaydi yoki kengaytirmaydi. Bunday kirish va foydalanish huquqi doimo quyidagilarga boʻysunadi: (i) Shartlar va qoidalar; (ii) Risklar haqida ogohlantirish; va (iii) Javobgarlikni toʻliq rad etish. Shuning uchun bunday kontent umumiy maʼlumot sifatida taqdim etiladi. Xususan, shuni esda tutingki, bizning onlayn savdo platformamiz mazmuni moliyaviy bozorlarda biror bitimni amalga oshirishga oid maslahat yoki taklif emas. Har qanday moliyaviy bozorda savdo qilish sizning kapitalingiz uchun jiddiy risk darajasini oʻz ichiga oladi.
Onlayn savdo platformamizda chop etilgan barcha materiallar faqat taʼlim/axborot maqsadlari uchun moʻljallangan va unda moliyaviy, investitsiya soligʻi yoki savdo maslahatlari va tavsiyalar; yoki bizning savdo narxlarimizning qaydlari; yoki har qanday moliyaviy vositalar bilan bitim tuzish maslahati yoki taklifi; yoki sizga kerak boʻlmagan moliyaviy reklama aksiyalari hisoblanmaydi
Har qanday uchinchi tomon kontenti, shuningdek XM tomonidan tayyorlangan kontent, masalan: fikrlar, yangiliklar, tadqiqotlar, tahlillar, narxlar va boshqa maʼlumotlar yoki bu veb-saytda joylashgan uchinchi tomon saytlariga havolalar umumiy bozor sharhi sifatida "boricha" taqdim etiladi va investitsiya maslahatini tashkil etmaydi. Har qanday kontent investitsiya tadqiqoti sifatida talqin qilinsa, siz bunday kontentni investitsiya tadqiqotlarining mustaqilligini ragʻbatlantirish uchun moʻljallangan qonun talablariga muvofiq moʻljallanmagan va tayyorlanmaganligini eʼtiborga olishingiz va qabul qilishingiz kerak, shuning uchun unga tegishli qonunlar va qoidalarga muvofiq marketing kommunikatsiyasi sifatida qaraladi. Mustaqil boʻlmagan investitsiya tadqiqoti va yuqoridagi maʼlumotlarga oid risk haqida ogohlantirishimizni oʻqib chiqqaningizga va tushunganingizga ishonch hosil qiling, unga bu yerdan kirish mumkin.