Perilous Times and Climate Change
Hurricane Igor heads north to Canada after battering Bermuda
Reuters - Tuesday, September 21
By Sam Strangeways and Ruth O'Kelly Lynch
HAMILTON - Hurricane Igor churned north on Monday on a track expected
to take it near Newfoundland in easternmost Canada, after battering
Bermuda with heavy winds, waves and rain that caused damage but no
casualties.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a tropical storm watch for the
coast of Newfoundland. North Atlantic Refining, operator of a 115,000
barrel-per-day oil refinery in Come-by-Chance, Newfoundland, said it
was keeping a close eye on Igor.
The U.S. National Hurricane Centre said the core of the large Category
1 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds near 75 miles per hour .
Overnight, Bermuda experienced several hours of lashing wind, waves and
rain. Residents of the British island territory reported uprooted
trees, flying debris, widespread power outages, some flooding of
streets and homes and boats torn from moorings. Bermuda has a
population of more than 67,000 people.
Hurricane force winds extended about 90 miles from the core of Igor.
The U.S. East Coast would experience rough surf and a stiff breeze, the
Miami-based hurricane centre said.
The hurricane was moving north-northeast at 24 miles per hour . A turn
northeast away from the U.S. coast and an increase in forward speed
were forecast in the next 24 hours.
"Igor will continue to be a large cyclone as it moves past Newfoundland
towards Greenland," the hurricane centre said.
"PRETTY WILD NIGHT"
Official damage assessments were being carried out in Bermuda as Igor
pulled away on Monday morning. Emergency crews were clearing felled
trees and debris from roads.
Local police spokesman Dwayne Caines said there had been property
damage across the island, but there were no reports of deaths or
serious injuries.
Power utility Belco reported considerable damage to the electricity
distribution system. Spokeswoman Susan McGrath-Smith said there were
"many reports of broken poles, wires down and transformers down,
affecting both high voltage and low voltage lines."
"We haven't been outside," Michelle Simmons, a school principal in St.
George's, told Reuters.
"It was a pretty wild night," she said.
But Bermuda appeared to have suffered less from the impact of Igor than
it did from Hurricane Fabian in 2003, which killed four people and
caused millions of dollars of damage.
East of Igor, Tropical Storm Julia was breaking up on Monday and posed
no threat to land.
The hurricane centre said there was a high chance of a new storm
developing west of the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic, as
the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season continued this year's active pace.
In Mexico over the weekend, the remnants of Hurricane Karl dissipated
over the mountains of south central Mexico, after killing at least
eight people, emergency workers said.
Karl apparently spared Mexican oil operations from major damage after
sweeping through the Bay of Campeche, where Mexico produces more than
two-thirds of its 2.55 million barrels per day of crude output.