Resurgent Emily Smashes Into Bermuda : Hurricane, With 112-M.P.H. Winds, Leaves Power Out, 16 Hurt

Hurricane Emily gained unexpected strength early Friday morning, tossing boats out of the water, flipping cars, tearing off roofs and injuring at least 16 people with its gusts of up to 112 m.p.h. as it raced across this island resort and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasters were stunned that Emily gained strength even as it picked up forward speed.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported, Bryan Darby, a Bermuda government spokesman, said.

“We’ve been very lucky,” Darby said. “It was a swift, sharp punch.”

Power was cut off over about 90% of the island, but by early afternoon workers had restored electricity to Hamilton, the capital. Darby said he expected the entire island to be back on full power by today. Of Bermuda’s 57,145 people, about 25,000 live in Hamilton.

The island was hit with maximum sustained winds of 90 m.p.h., Cmdr. Frank Bub of the U.S. Naval Oceanography Command Facility in Bermuda said. The storm moved through the island with a forward speed of 45 m.p.h.

Emily’s eye passed over Kindley Field in Bermuda at 7:45 a.m., the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fla., reported. The roof of the airport terminal was blown off during the hurricane, and the airport was closed until this morning.

Authorities received 230 reports of torn roofs, boats lost, uprooted trees and other damage.

‘Defies Our Knowledge’

“What has taken place in the last 12 hours defies our knowledge and the concept of meteorology,” center forecaster Bob Case said early Friday. A storm moving forward at that speed should have weakened in force, not strengthened, he said.

Emily had lost strength Thursday as it passed through the mountains of the Dominican Republic, leaving three people dead.

“We were forecasting a strong tropical storm for later today or early this evening,” Case added. “Instead we got a Category 2 hurricane that hit first thing this morning. This could happen anytime, anyplace, anywhere during any season.

“If we would have known” that there was a threat to Bermuda, “we would have forecast it,” he said. “What we are seeing is what we have said for years. Many times we have been accused of crying wolf. Our response was that there are certain limitations of our forecasting ability. There are things we cannot forecast. This is a perfect example of our limitations.”

Overnight, Emily’s winds increased to 80 m.p.h. from 70 m.p.h. as it raced northeast toward Bermuda. A high-pressure front along the eastern coast of the United States was blamed for the hurricane’s sudden pickup in speed.

“Along that front is a flow of air from the southwest to the northeast,” meteorologist Joel Cline of the National Hurricane Center said. “Emily got caught up in that flow.”

Emily was expected to keep moving northeast, according to the center’s acting director, Bob Sheets. He also predicted it would weaken by late today.

Emily began as a hurricane Tuesday, plowing into the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On Wednesday, it swept north through the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands with reduced winds of 60 m.p.h., leaving the chain relatively unscathed.