Hurricane warnings went up for Bermuda Wednesday as forecasters placed Gonzalo, which had reached major hurricane status, near the island nation in less than 48 hours. Earlier this week, Gonzalo carved through the Caribbean, killing at least one person, injuring 12 others and causing structural damage to homes on Antigua and other Caribbean islands.
Gonzalo first reached major hurricane status Tuesday when it became a powerful Category 3 storm. It's set on a near-collision course with Bermuda on Friday, just days after Tropical Storm Fay brought down trees and power lines and damaged homes on the island. According to The Weather Channel's Vice President of Global Forecasting Services Peter Neilley, who was on Bermuda when Fay hit last weekend and remains on the island as Gonzalo approaches, Bermudans are still cleaning up from Fay.
According to The Royal Gazette, Bermuda's government offices and schools will close Friday as the storm makes its closest approach. Some private schools have already closed Thursday, too.
The island's L.F. Wade International Airport is set to close Thursday night and is likely to stay that way until at least Saturday, USA Today reports. Airlines scheduled additional flights for Thursday to get visitors off the island ahead of the storm.
More than 3,500 people remain without power as utility companies scramble to restore power ahead of Gonzalo. Nearly all of Bermuda lost power in the wake of Fay, The Royal Gazette reports. Neilley said that piles of debris left over from Fay are still scattered across the island, which could cause issues when Gonzalo's strong winds arrive.
"Debris from Fay, mostly trees, limbs and coconuts, may be the primary issue with back-to-back storms as this debris could become airborne," Neilley said.
Neilley also said Bermudans were already preparing for the storm's arrival. Boats were being pulled in from dockyards, businesses and homes were being boarding up and the clock tower mall will likely be closed in anticipation of Gonzalo's arrival. Additional flights were being scheduled for Thursday to get as many people as possible off the island that want to leave, The Royal Gazette notes.
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Residents are already flooding hardware and grocery stores in preparation of the storm's arrival, The Royal Gazette reports. So many people descended upon hardware stores Tuesday that stores across the island were selling out of items like batteries and wood, and hot commodities like generators had sold out in multiple stores across the island.
“Everything that is on the hurricane list has been going fast and furious," Mark Steams, the general manager of the hardware store Masters, told the Royal Gazette. “People are definitely nervous about this storm, especially after the last one."
And it's easy to see why Bermudans are so concerned. Gonzalo left its mark across the Caribbean even as a much weaker storm, killing one person in St. Maarten, disrupting travel and causing structural damage to homes in Antigua and the Caribbean islands.
The storm's biggest impacts on Tuesday were on the shared island that is home to the Dutch and French territories of St. Maarten and St. Martin. Most of the Dutch Caribbean territory was without water and electricity Tuesday, and residents reported losing roofs, doors and windows, the Daily Herald notes.
Amy Arrindell, vice president of the St. Maarten Zoological and Botanical Foundation, said the St. Maarten Zoo was heavily damaged and that trees were uprooted, the petting zoo was destroyed and the animals' enclosures were flooded. Thankfully, no animals were injured or hurt.
"There is major damage to the structure," she said. "It is total devastation."
The storm killed one elderly man in St. Maarten who was aboard a boat in Simpson Bay Lagoon. Twenty of the 37 boats sunk during the storm did so in Simpson Bay Lagoon, according to The Daily Herald. Two other people are missing, one man who was last seen on a boat near the French Caribbean territory or St. Martin and another man standing near a harbor in St. Barths.
(FORECAST: Gonzalo Eyes Bermuda Next)
Antigua and the Leeward Islands took the brunt of the storm on Monday, when Gonzalo was still a Tropical Storm, downing trees, ripping roofs off of homes and causing at least 12 minor injuries on the island nation of around 80,000 people.
According to the Daily Observer, most of the damage was done to public infrastructure like power lines, but farms across the island were decimated by winds, which gusted up to 88 mph. Antigua was already experiencing a shortage of certain crops, and the damage done to the current lot is expected to further exacerbate food supply problems.
According to the Associated Press, Gonzalo damaged many homes, including that of 36-year-old teacher Condell Maurice.
"You should have seen us with our buckets, jugs and bowls trying to chase down those leaks," Maurice told the Associated Press. Utility companies were still working into the evening hours Tuesday to restore power outages across the island, The Daily Observer reports.
Tune-in to The Weather Channel TV network for more coverage on Hurricane Gonzalo.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described more extensive damage to the Hermitage Bay resort than actually occurred.
Damage is seen to trees after hurricane Gonzalo hit Bermuda. (tipsyandmom/instagram)
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