Hurricane Bill Raides Fears - Hurricane Bill skirts US coast

Miami – Hurricane Bill, the first of the Atlantic storm season, doused Bermuda with heavy rain on Saturday as it barrelled past the islands, raising fears of life-threatening waves along the US east coast.

Packing winds of 105 miles (165 kilometres) an hour, the hurricane was set to head perilously close to the upscale island resort of Martha’s Vineyard, where US President Barack Obama and his family are heading for vacation on Sunday.

The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) warned of “extremely dangerous” surf and “life-threatening rip currents” throughout a vast area including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

But the centre downgraded the hurricane a notch to Category Two on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning the storm threatens to cause widespread damage but does not carry the same potential to destroy weak homes as a Category Three storm.

In the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola, authorities reported waves up to 10 feet (three meters) high churned up due to Bill’s passage.

Hurrican Bill tracked by NASA.

Bermuda shut down its main international gateway, LF Wade International Airport, for the night as the tourist island bunkered in.

“It’s quite wild at the moment, but we’re used to hurricanes in Bermuda,” said Lorna Cervantez, who works at the island’s Royal Palms Hotel. “From our previous experience, we have to get ready.”

Residents of the British overseas territory with gas cylinders were asked to turn them off as they could become dangerous projectiles if winds pick up.

Bermuda was expected to avoid a direct hit from Bill as the hurricane churns past it on its way to near Massachusetts in time for the Obamas’ arrival.

Yacht owners battened down the hatches at Martha’s Vineyard, a popular island of tranquillity for the rich and famous where the US first family was due to spend a week unwinding for the first time since Obama’s inauguration in January.

“Phones are ringing off the hook and the hurricane is all people are talking about,” said Ned Kaiser, the assistant harbour master at Martha’s Vineyard.

“We’re hearing we’ll have pretty big seas with the storm surge coming. Out in the ocean now, the waves are 12 to 15 feet” (3.7 to 4.6 meters).

US oil giant Exxon Mobil said it was evacuating all 200 workers from a gas platform off the Canadian east coast ahead of Hurricane Bill’s expected weekend arrival.

At 06:00 GMT on Saturday, Bill’s eye was about 205 miles (330 kilometres) west of Bermuda, and about 475 miles (765 kilometres) east-southeast of the US coastline at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the NHC said.

It was moving northwest at around 20 miles (32 kilometres) per hour.

“On the forecast track, the core of Hurricane Bill is expected to pass over the open waters between Bermuda and the east coast of the United States this morning,” the NHC said.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30.

Weather experts specialising in hurricane forecasting predicted above average activity over the next two weeks.