Bermuda battens down for Category 3 Hurricane Humberto

MIAMI (AP) — Bermuda’s government called up troops and urged people on the British Atlantic island to make final preparations for an expected close brush Wednesday with Hurricane Humberto, a powerful Category 3 storm. Authorities ordered early closings of schools, transportation and government offices.

Governor 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 schools, government offices and ferries on the island would close at noon and bus service would halt at 4:00 p.m.

Officials expected tropical storm-force winds to begin whipping at Bermuda in the morning and warned that hurricane-force gusts would probably last until early Thursday.

Humberto was predicted to pass just north of the territory of some 70,000 people, though a small shift in its path could bring the storm over the island itself.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Humberto’s maximum sustained winds strengthened to 120 miles per hour and it would probably remain a Category 3 hurricane through Thursday, though there could be some fluctuations in its winds.

The storm was centred about 195 miles west of Bermuda early Wednesday, moving east-northeast at 16 miles per hour.

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