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These photos (apart from number 1) were taken after Hurricane Florence hit Bermuda on the morning of 11 September 2006. She was only officially a category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning that her sustained winds never climbed above 100mph. However, a gust of wind was recorded in St. David's of 111mph. Florence never technically made landfall on Bermuda, as her eye passed approximately 60 miles to the west of the island, and the radius of hurricane strength winds was 60-70 miles. (This is better than some of the original models, which had the closest point of approach as 4 miles...) As a result, there was very little structural damage on the island - only four houses lost their roofs, and the Causeway bridge suffered minor damage. Power was lost to the island, but was restored the same day.
Below is a short diary of the events leading up to, and just after the hurricane, as well as the photos. Picture 1 is actually taken during the storm, with me just outside of my apartment.
Saturday, September 09, 2006 20:00
So. It started raining (but nothing too hard) at
around half three, and hasn't stopped since. It got a
little heavier later on. It's calm - the Reach outside
the station is flat, and there's not a breath of wind.
I was out helping a friend secure stuff on his boat
when the hurricane hunters flew in. It's a white
Hercules, and we don't get many of those, so it was
fairly obvious.
The latest update still has the storm as a tropical
storm, about 400 miles away, and not forecast to reach
a hurricane until Sunday afternoon. It's scheduled to
hit us as a category 2 hurricane (95-110 mph winds)
mid morning on Monday, although we're still only on
hurricane "watch", not as serious as hurricane warning
(yet...).
We're planning parties at other houses - I don't think
a lot of people on the 3rd floor of the new building
actually trust the decking... It's only held on with
nails, so any strong winds could well pull up the
planks, leaving us stuck. I've had an offer of a
couch, so I'll be fine.
Sunday, September 10, 2006 10:38
Florence is now a hurricane! We're now on hurricane
warning, which means that hurricane force winds are
likely to hit within 24 hours. However, the track has
shifted slightly west of Bermuda. Although it's still
close enough to be considered a direct hit, moving to
the west is apparently the worst scenario for damaging
winds and storm surge. She's still about 300 miles
away (as of 0900 local), with a tropical storm radius
of just over 250 miles and a hurricane radius of
nearly 50 miles.
Literally just after I left the computer lab from
the last update it had stopped raining. It's very muggy,
up to 90% humidity, and we watched the first gentle
winds come down the Reach. You could see the ripples
working their way down - not something I've seen
before!
The winds slowly picked up, nothing heavy, and now
we're up to about 25kt winds, with stronger gusts. It
should increase further today, forecast to 50-60kts by
tonight. They've even said there is a possibility of
tornadoes...
She's still going to hit on Monday morning, and still
supposed to be a cat 2.
Sunday, September 10, 2006 12:39
Hurricane Florence is now only about 250 miles from Bedrmuda, and still forecast to hit on Monday morning.
We're beginning to get the Tropical Storm winds now.
It's nothing special at the moment, just grey (100%
cloud cover), windy and it's raining again. The
thunderstorm activity has started as well, with some
good rumbles of thunder every so often. Still got 90%
humidity.
Florence has winds of up to 80mph, making her still a cat 1, but she is expected to probably reach a cat 2
by Monday, sometime around when she hits here.
Everything is our labs is secured, and I've moved my
stuff away from windows. My mattress is now down in a
ground floor apartment, and we should be having some
fun parties tonight!! I'm going over to Mike (my boss)
and Deb's house this afternoon to watch American
Football...
Sunday, September 10, 2006 19:27
It's actually been quite strange here. Nothing like I
expected at all. Not long after I last wrote (about
1330 local), the rain stopped, and the sun tried to
come out. So much so that when I was at Mike and
Deb's, dinner was actually barbecued! Not bad stuff
either - homemade burgers, marinated chicken and hot
dogs.
At last check, Florence was about 185 miles off shore,
still a cat 1, although a strong cat 1. She's still
forecast to hit early tomorrow as a cat 2. Wind gusts
have started to get stronger here - we had one
reported at 59mph recently just outside of Hamilton.
The hurricane itself now has a radius of 60 miles, but
the tropical storm winds have reduced to about 260
miles in radius. They're still expecting a storm surge
of 6-8 feet, and rainfall of up to 10 (ten) inches.
We're going out tonight to watch glow worms mating -
it should be interesting to see if it still happens
during a hurricane approach! Then off out
socialising...
Monday, September 11, 2006 18:07
Florence has passed. We had winds gusting to well over
100mph, but constant winds not quite in to the cat 2 levels. The
weather station at the airport reported 90mph winds, and one gust at St David's
was reported at 111mph.
Lots of rain as well, but now the winds have dropped considerably.
The hurricane strength winds hit Bermuda at about
0600, and kept up until mid afternoon. Still got the
occasional gust of strong winds (around 50kts) though.
Power went out in the new building at about 0845, and
is not back on yet, although the emergency generator
still powers the library (where I've been writing
from) and Wright Hall. There's lots of downed trees,
some boat damage, and generally a lot of minor damage.
There appears to be no structural damage to any of the
buildings, although I haven't yet been in to any of
the labs.
Just for the fun of it, the Hurricane Centre issued a
warning last night for Tropical Depression 7, now
upgraded to Tropical Storm Gordon. He is expected to
become a hurricane on Wednesday or Thursday, and at
the moment is a potential threat to Bermuda. So far,
there is less concern for Gordon as it is due to track
to the east of the island, meaning that the winds
should be less damaging. Gordon is also a smaller
system (Florence ended up with a radius of 70 miles
hurricane, 290 miles TS winds), so there's less to hit
Bermuda. I'll keep you posted on that one...
[Gordon missed us by several hundred miles, although the swells were noticeable here]
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