Bermuda braces for Igor

September 19, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

HAMILTON, Bermuda

Tourists lined up at Bermuda’s airport hoping to board one of the last flights off the island, and locals stocked up on emergency supplies Saturday in preparation for the approaching Hurricane Igor while Mexicans mourned at least five killed by Hurricane Karl.

An extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane earlier in the week, Igor was still a Category 2 storm, and officials warned that its pounding rains and driving winds could be deadly.

“This storm will be a long and punishing one,” Public Safety Minister David Burch said. “The potential for injury and physical damage is great.”

High surf kicked up by the storm already has swept two people out to sea in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, far to the south.

In Mexico, meanwhile, the remnants of Hurricane Karl soaked south-central portions of the country as authorities sent helicopters to rescue scores of people stranded by flooding and hunt for others feared washed away.

At least seven fatalities were reported.

Tropical-storm-force winds were forecast to start battering Bermuda on Saturday night, with the hurricane expected to pass directly overhead or nearby late today or early Monday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Around midday, Igor had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and was located about 325 miles south of Bermuda. Hurricane-force winds extended about 90 miles from the storm’s center, and it was headed north-northwest and expected to curve toward the British Atlantic territory.Hotel cancellations were reported across Bermuda, popular with tourists for its pink sand beaches and with businesspeople as an offshore financial haven.

Bermudians were planning ahead and buying up supplies, said Mark Stearns, vice president of Masters Ltd., a home and garden store in the capital of Hamilton.

Schools will close Monday and Tuesday, and a local newspaper said it will not print a Monday edition.