After Paulette: Bermuda battered but unshaken
Hurricane Paulette battered Bermuda last Monday with strong damaging winds and torrential rains knocking down utility poles and leaving some roads unpassable.
Even if the island was battered by Paullete, the Bermudian spirit remains unshaken.
“After a day and night of high winds, driving rain and exceptional waves, we are on the other side of Hurricane Paulette, thankfully without any loss of life, serious personal injury and less damage to property than we might have expected.” “We have weathered the storm,” Premier David Burt said.
Bermuda recovery efforts
More than 25,000 of Bermuda Electric Light Company’s (BELCO) 36,000 metered customers was affected by the island-wide power outage.
As of 9pm today, there were only 2,353 homes left without power.
Although a considerable number of homes remain without electricity, Premier Burt thanked the BELCO for their sweep action to restore their services.
“This is a remarkable achievement and I have already expressed by thanks on behalf of the people of Bermuda to those men and women at BELCO.”
BELCO said that their crews continue to work to restore power across Bermuda following damage caused by Hurricane Paulette.
“Our crews will stand down at midnight tonight and begin work tomorrow, Wednesday, September 16, at 8 am. Crews continue to work on mainlines this evening and plan to address pockets of branch line outages tomorrow, starting with more critical areas.”
Minister of National Security Renée Ming also praised other workforce across the island that helped in the recovery effort.
“Traffic is now flowing fairly unhindered thanks to road clean-up efforts by the Department of Parks and Public Works staff aided by the Royal Bermuda Regiment.”
Ming then addressed concerns over Tropical Storm Teddy, located about 1,800 miles southeast of the island and is predicted to develop into a Category 3 hurricane later in the week, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre.
Although early forecasts show the storm making a beeline for Bermuda, Ming said that it is too early to make any predictions, but the Bermuda Weather Service will continue to monitor it for future developments.