Maps show Tropical Storm Ernesto's path and forecast as it moves away from Bermuda
Tropical Storm Ernesto was moving away from Bermuda Saturday after making landfall on the island as a Category 1 hurricane.
The British territory remained under a tropical storm warning Saturday evening after getting hit with heavy rains and powerful winds, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory.
As of 11 p.m. EDT, Ernesto was centered about 140 miles northeast of Bermuda and was inching north-northeast at 6 miles per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, the NHC said, a significant weakening from the 100 mph it reached Friday when it was at Category 2 hurricane status. Forecasters said Ernesto could regain hurricane strength Sunday, but would likely weaken before passing near southeastern Newfoundland late Monday.
Swells fueled by Ernesto were forecast to cause "life-threatening surf and rip current conditions" on the East Coast of the U.S. and Atlantic Canada over the next couple of days, the hurricane center said.
Ernesto had strengthened from a tropical storm into a hurricane Wednesday morning while moving north of Puerto Rico, as forecasters had predicted. The hurricane center upgraded Ernesto once its maximum sustained winds reached 75 mph.
Ernesto knocked out power to about 72% of customers in Bermuda Saturday, according to utility provider Belco. The island was expected to see rain totals of up to 9 inches. Although the storm was moving away from Bermuda, tropical storm conditions were expected to persist for the island into late Saturday night, the hurricane center said.
Before making landfall in Bermuda, Ernesto brought heavy flooding to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands earlier in the week while gaining strength as it went through the Caribbean. Torrential downpours blanketed parts of Puerto Rico for much of Wednesday, dumping nearly 10 inches of rain, swelling rivers and flooding roads.
In the process, Ernesto knocked out power to about 750,000 homes and businesses in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico's electricity provider, LUMA Energy, said about 101,000 customers still didn't have power as of Saturday night, a significant drop from when service outages peaked on Wednesday afternoon, the provider said.
According to the utility tracker PowerOutage.us, just over 3,400 customers in the U.S. Virgin Islands had no electricity Saturday night, down from a peak of about 46,000 on Wednesday.
Ernesto became the fifth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season when it formed Monday on a fast-moving path to the Caribbean. The storm came on the heels of Hurricane Debby, which lashed parts of the southeastern United States last week with disastrous flooding and severe weather that ultimately touched much of the East Coast. Ernesto isn't expected to strike the U.S. mainland, the hurricane center said.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story reported 975,000 customers had lost power in Puerto Rico, but that was the number of customers who still had power, according to Puerto Rico's electricity provider.