The ”large and severe” Hurricane Fabian is likely to slam into the Atlantic Ocean island of Bermuda on Friday, the United States National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said, urging residents of the British dependency to batten down.
The powerful storm packed winds of 195kph with higher gusts.
At noon GMT, the centre of the hurricane was about 250km south-southwest of Bermuda and moving north at 28kph.
”This motion is expected to bring the core of the hurricane near or over Bermuda later today,” said NHC forecaster Lixion Avila.
He said Bermuda could expect storm surge flooding and ”dangerous battering waves”, while large swells could be expected along parts of the US east coast.
”Fabian is a large and severe hurricane. Preparations to protect life and proterty should be rushed to completion,” said Avila.
At the same time, the NHC lifted tropical storm warnings for the Texas coast as tropical depression Grace weakened.
The storm hit land near the Texan city of Port O’Connor, but heavy rain and winds of about 60kph extended well north and east of the centre. — Sapa-AFP