Bermuda: Battling Hurricane Igor · Global Voices
Remaining true to its most famous namesake, Hurricane Igor has, thus far, been the biggest and strongest storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season, battering the tiny island of Bermuda even as it maintains its course towards Newfoundland, Canada. A handful of Bermudian bloggers managed to get information out in the midst of the barrage…
Before the storm's impending arrival, Breezeblog posted video of one of the island's beaches, noting that the island was battening down “for what looks like quite a blow”:
I’ll be posting on Facebook and Twitter (@gobber) as long as the power permits.
He also provided several links to online sources that were covering <PERSON>'s progress.
Bermuda Blog was fascinated by the size of the waves that the hurricane managed to produce, even 60 hours before it made landfall.
The weather got progressively worse, as evidenced by this video from Breezeblog, who reported:
Got blown about a bit while taking the dog for walk this morning. Winds now at tropical storm level, as can be seen from this clip, shot from Salt Kettle ferry stop, looking across Hamilton Harbour to the city.
Twitter, as is usually the case in these types of situations, was an efficient platform through which to get information out; Politics.bm used it quite consistently:
Don't think I've ever been ready for a Hurricane so early. I even gave the dog a bath.
Wind speeds and direction up on Gilbert Hill http://bit.ly/97Xhs6
There goes power and here comes a dripping skylight. Thanks #<PERSON>
If my patio doors could talk they'd be saying “Ouuuccchhhhh!”. Edge of the eyewall right now.
Still howling now from the west high up here. Doesn't look like any roof damage around Smiths and Dev. The eye took forever to pass over.
<PERSON> & <PERSON> offered even more information, perhaps because they were off-island:
About now hurricane Igor is pummeling Bermuda with stupid winds, torrential rains and chaos. 482
Last reports were that more than half of the island was without power, there are down trees everywhere, lots of flooding, and there is still a full 24 hours of high winds and mostly bad weather in store before the storm is likely to pass.
This week we found ourselves asking what would we have done leading up to the storm if we were still there. It’s not so much a fear of complete destruction. The houses and roofs in Bermuda are very strong and there is little risk of widespread damage. But the high heat, lack of water and electricity would have made life pretty miserable. During Fabian, the causeway which connects the largest parts of the island with the eastern end and most importantly the airport was completely washed away. That could mean you could be stranded without power for days.
We still have lots of friends there and have been following the storm closely and hope it passes without much of an incident. The royalgazette was doing a good job of live blogging things but they finally went off line and so we’ll have to wait and see how tomorrow finds them.
It may be too early to discern the level of damage the island is facing post-Igor, but Breezeblog still decided to look on the bright side, posting an entertaining list of ten things to love (and yes, hate) about hurricanes. At the top of the list should probably be the fact that it's over…at least for now.
The thumbnail image used in this post, “NASA Satellite Captures Hurricane Igor”, is by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License. Visit NASA Goddard Photo and Video's flickr photostream. 142