SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Hurricane Gonzalo was expected to become a major hurricane Tuesday and poses a threat to Bermuda as it strengthens over the open Atlantic north of Puerto Rico, forecasters said.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gonzalo was a strong Category 2 storm with top sustained winds of nearly 110 mph (175 kph) early Tuesday as it moved away from the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Still intensifying, Gonzalo was centered about 105 miles (179 kilometers) north of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was headed to the northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).
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Gonzalo was expected to take a north-northwest turn late Wednesday and move over open waters toward Bermuda through Friday.
“Folks in Bermuda are going to need to start paying attention to this thing,” Dennis Feltgen, a National Hurricane Center meteorologist, said by phone.
Forecasters might begin issuing storm watches Wednesday if Gonzalo is expected to impact Bermuda, he said.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Barts and for the island shared by St. Martin and St. Maarten. Hazardous surf was forecast for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern and central Bahamas.
Gonzalo passed just northeast of the British Virgin Islands overnight but did not cause any damage or flooding, Lorenzo Thomas, with the island’s Department of Disaster Management, said by phone. Officials in the tiny territory of roughly 30,000 people had earlier shut airports, schools and government offices ahead of the storm.
Yvonne Remington, owner of the Hummingbird House bed and breakfast in Tortola, said she secured her outdoor tables and chairs but was perplexed about the lack of heavy rains and winds.
“I just turned on the weather channel to see where it went,” she said in a phone interview early Tuesday. “We’ve had a bit of rain, and that’s all.”
Officials in the neighboring three-island territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands had shut seaports and the international airport on St. Thomas, but announced that schools and government offices would open on Tuesday.
Authorities in Puerto Rico said hundreds of people were left without power along the north coast as a result of the storm.
Gonzalo pummeled Antigua on Monday as a tropical storm, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees and knocking out power, with crews working overnight with flashlights to help restore power. About a dozen people were treated at a hospital for light injuries including lacerations, which occurred because they were outside during the storm, said Sherrod James, deputy director of the National Office of Disaster Services.
Schools in Antigua remained closed on Tuesday, but government offices and other businesses were open, with people already waiting at bus stops in the morning. Officials also expect to reopen the airport.
Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Fay knocked out power to thousands in Bermuda before moving out over open ocean.
Anika Kentish in St. John’s, Antigua, contributed to this report.
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