Associated Press
MIAMI — Bermuda’s government called up troops and urged people to stay off the streets as the British Atlantic territory prepared for a close brush Wednesday with Hurricane Humberto, a powerful Category 3 storm. Authorities ordered early closings of schools, clinics and government offices.
Gov. John Rankin called up 120 members of the Royal Bermuda Regiment to prepare for possible storm recovery efforts and National Security Minister Wayne Caines said urged everyone to be off the streets by 5 p.m.
Officials expected tropical storm-force winds to soon begin whipping at the islands of some 70,000 people and warned that hurricane-force gusts would probably last until early Thursday.
James Dodgson, director of the Bermuda Weather Service, said the storm was projected to pass about 80 miles to the north of Bermuda around 8 p.m. Wednesday and could produce tornadoes and dangerous storm surge.
“Humberto’s a big hurricane and we’re looking at the conditions already deteriorating. There’s some very strong winds kicking in, particularly this evening,” he said.
Caines said non-emergency medical services would be closed until Thursday. Evening flights from the U.S. and Great Britain were canceled.
“We’d like to ask all of Bermuda to prepare for the storm, to know that the government and everyone is rooting for us, and we can get through this,” Caines said. “We’ve been through this before.”
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Humberto’s maximum sustained winds strengthened to 120 mph and it would probably remain a Category 3 hurricane through Thursday, though there could be some fluctuations in its winds.
The storm was centered about 195 miles west of Bermuda Wednesday morning and was moving east-northeast at 16 mph.
Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 105 miles from the center, with tropical-storm-force winds reaching as far as 195 miles.
In Texas, the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda threatened to drench parts of Southwest Texas and southwestern Louisiana with up to 18 inches of rain over the next few days. It was the first named storm to hit the Houston area since Hurricane Harvey’s much heavier rains flooded more than 150,000 homes around the city and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.
Tropical Storm Jerry also formed Wednesday morning, forecast to become a hurricane as it nears the outermost Caribbean islands Thursday night or Friday.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Lorena was moving off Mexico’s Pacific Coast, and forecasters now expect it to become a hurricane Friday as it approaches shore. They warned of heavy rains and flooding to resorts from Zihuatanejo to Cabo Corrientes. Lorena had top winds of 65 mph early Wednesday and was centered about 120 miles south-southeast of Manzanillo, moving northwest at 13 mph.
Further off Mexico’s Pacific Coast, Tropical Storm Mario also was expected to be a hurricane by Friday as it approaches the southern tip of Baja California and become nearly stationary through Friday night.
