Hurricane Florence struck Bermuda with powerful winds and pounding surf today and gained some strength as it swept just offshore of the mid-Atlantic British island.
Florence's sustained winds grew from 130kph to 90 mph 145kph, and a wind gust was measured at 180kph on the island, the US National Hurricane Center said.
At 3pm the center of the Atlantic season's second hurricane was about 97 km northwest of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 21 kph.
The core of the Category 1 hurricane - the lowest rank on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale - stayed just off the Bermudan coast.
The hurricane was forecast to stay away from the North American mainland, but created heavy surf along parts of the eastern United States and the Canadian Maritime provinces.
Bermuda issued a hurricane warning and government leaders called up 200 troops and placed 250 more on standby for possible deployment after the storm.
Hundreds of emergency service workers were also on standby in the wealthy holiday destination, which is home to about 65,000 people and is an international finance center.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damages from Florence, but the storm knocked out power to about 23,000 homes and businesses, a spokesman for the Bermuda Electric Light Company said.
Hurricane Fabian, the strongest storm to hit Bermuda in 50 years, killed four people and did about $500 million damage in 2003.
The US National Hurricane Center said a small tropical depression that formed today about 495 miles (800 km) east-northeast of the Leeward Islands could become Tropical Storm Gordon later in the day.