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Hurricane Ernesto made landfall in Bermuda yesterday, bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall to the small British territory in the middle of the Atlantic.
In case you missed it, Ernesto had some serious effects across the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico earlier in the week. You can read more about that here.
After delivering heavy rain to Puerto Rico, Ernesto rapidly moved north, curving west along with the Gulf Stream, a massive current that sweeps through the Atlantic Ocean. Then, it shifted east, setting Bermuda it its direct path. In the end, the storm managed to make landfall on the one piece of land -- only 1.75 miles wide at its widest point -- in the entire North Atlantic. A hurricane warning was issued for the entire area before the arrival of the storm, and Ernesto made landfall early yesterday morning as a Category 1 hurricane. It brought sustained winds of over 85 mph and some storm surge along with heavy rain. Totals of around 6 to 9 inches are expected across Bermuda. Thankfully, the storm struck with weaker winds than it was expected to, arriving as a Category 1 instead of a Category 2.
Meanwhile, the true damage done by the system in other areas is just beginning to emerge, with various rivers across Puerto Rico overflowing after the heavy rainfall. Bridges were wiped out and muddy floods turned villages into swamps and roads into rivers. While crews are working quickly to restore crucial resources, hundreds of thousands of people are still out of power and over 100,000 do not have access to clean water. Power companies are primarily working towards restoring power to hospitals first, as several hospitals are running on emergency backup power from generators. In the US Virgin Islands, located just east of Puerto Rico, officials stated that that St. John and St. Croix experienced a total outage across the entire island, and airports were also shut down-- they have since reopened. Offices and schools were forced to close in both US territories and have since struggled to open back up due to the number of major roads still blocked by water and trees. Cruises have been avoiding the area for several days, trying to stay away from the weather, but should return soon.
Ernesto is now expected to brush the province of Newfoundland, located in Canada, as it curves northeast. It will most likely arrive as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of over 75 mph, along with heavy rain, once again. From there, it should fizzle out in the North Atlantic as it drifts over colder waters.
The warnings over Bermuda have ended since the system has quickly moved away from the island, but tropical storm statements are in place across the waters of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland amid the impending brush from Ernesto. Marine warnings are still in place across the eastern coast of the United States, though, because of the dangerous rip currents and high waves that could occur due to Ernesto churning the ocean hundreds of miles away.
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Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): It’s not complicated to embrace life. You just have to make the choice. (Faith Hill)
Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Copious (adj)- Copious is a synonym of abundant and plentiful. It is always used before a noun to describe something very large in amount or number.
In a Sentence: The pie was served with a copious amount of ice cream.
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