The cat 1 hurricane was about 395 miles WSW of Bermuda at 9am
Left, BELCO power outage map; right, satellite image of Hurricane Imelda churning in the Atlantic courtesy of Zoom.Earth
As Hurricane Imelda rumbles toward Bermuda, pockets of power outages have already begun to crop up around the island.
Last night, more than 800 BELCO customers were without power by 9 pm, primarily in Warwick.
As of 10 am today, a total of 928 customers were experiencing an outage, with the bulk of those impacted in the east end.
In an update to its social media, BELCO advised residents of the following storm-related outages:
𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 – 47
𝗣𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲 – 20
𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘆s – 13
𝗦𝘁. 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲’𝘀 – 573
𝗪𝗮𝗿𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗸 – 275
Currently, restoration crews are onsite in Sandys and Warwick.
With forecasters predicting a prolonged period of strong winds and heavy rain as Imelda approaches the island tonight at near category 2 strength, residents are reminded “not” to call BELCO if their power goes out as properties with an Advanced Metering Infrastructure will alert BELCO to the outage.
A spokesperson for the utility explained, “It is important to keep the phone lines open for emergencies such as pole fires and downed power lines.”
If you are affected by an outage, remember to unplug all sensitive equipment and electronics.
BELCO added: “Please note that as restoration efforts re-commence, customers may experience temporary outages as crews de-energise circuits to safely effect repairs. As a result, outage numbers will fluctuate throughout this process.”
