Bermuda Braces for Huge Storm Surge

Tourists lined up at Bermuda's airport hoping to board one of the last flights off the island and locals stocked up on emergency supplies Saturday in preparation for the approaching Hurricane Igor while Mexicans mourned at least five killed by Hurricane Karl.

An extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane earlier in the week, Igor was still a Category 2 storm, and officials warned that its pounding rains and driving winds could be deadly.

High surf kicked up by the storm has already swept two people out to sea in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, far to the south.

Tropical-storm-force winds were forecast to start battering Bermuda Saturday night, with the hurricane expected to pass directly overhead or nearby late Sunday or early Monday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Around midday, Igor had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph and was located about 400 miles south of Bermuda.

Hotel cancellations were reported across Bermuda, popular with tourists for its pink sand beaches and with businesspeople as an offshore financial haven.

The government planned to close the L. F. Wade International Airport by Saturday afternoon and likely reopen it Monday. A causeway from the east end of the island to the rest of Bermuda was also to be closed.

Traveller's Boat Works marina was running out of space for all the vessels whose owners wanted them out of the water, and arranged to turn a nearby church parking lot into a makeshift boat yard.

"They pushed the panic button basically between Thursday night and yesterday," said marina operator Kristy Roberts. "I had maybe 20 boats to mess with, now I'm up to possibly 40 ... and I think it's going to go well over that."

Bistro at The Beach, a popular bar and restaurant in Hamilton, reported a busy Friday night ahead of the storm.

Looking ahead, Tropical Storm Julia, far out in the Atlantic, was weakening and not expected to threaten land.

Igor Bears Down on Bermuda, Julia Forms...

Hurricane Igor, the season’s most powerful storm, headed toward Bermuda on a track that may threaten the island group this weekend, while Julia became the fifth hurricane of the season today over the eastern Atlantic.

Igor was still a “dangerous” Category 4 storm, the second strongest on the 5-step Saffir-Simpson scale, after its winds dropped to 135 miles an hour from 150 mph yesterday, the National Hurricane Center said on its website at 4:45 a.m. Miami time. The storm was 750 miles east of the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands heading west-northwest at 8 mph.

Both Igor and Julia, with 75 mph winds behind it, are forecast to head into the north Atlantic while a collection of thunderstorms in the Caribbean is predicted to move west into Mexico and avoid the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for 31 percent of the U.S. oil output, computer models show.

“Swells generated by Igor will begin affecting the Leeward Islands today and will reach Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands tonight and Wednesday,” the center said.

The center’s prediction map shows Igor weakening while heading almost directly for Bermuda early on Sept. 19.