MONDAY JULY 14, 9.40pm: The Causeway was closed between 5pm and 8pm leaving hundreds of commuters stranded.
The initial decision to close at 5pm was announced at literally the last minute - 4.55pm - as commuters were already beginning to make their way home.
A brief statement from the Cabinet Office read: "In the interest of public safety, due to unexpected high winds associated with the Tropical Storm Bertha a decision has been made by Government to close the Causeway immediately for a period of about two hours."
A further announcement at 6.45pm extended that closure for another hour until at least 8pm.
"Please be advised that the latest advisory from the Bermuda Weather Service (BWS) is that the winds associated with Bertha are expected to increase.
"As such, and in the interest of public safety Government has advised that the Causeway will remain closed until around 8.00 p.m.
"The Government takes this opportunity to ask for the public's patience, particularly those individuals awaiting to traverse the Causeway Bridge."
The causeway re-opened just after 8pm as the storm abated.
The initial statement was received by the Bermuda Sun at 4.55pm, after repeated calls throughout the afternoon and in spite of initial assurances that the bridge would remain open.
The timing of the decision caused disruption to people living in the east end, many of whom were left stranded the wrong side of the causeway.
The storm had been tracked for almost a week and as early as 3.30pm today forecasters had upgraded its status to a hurricane watch.
Meanwhile thousands of homes were without power and all flights and ferries were cancelled as gusts of up to 65 knots hit the island.
The storm brought down power lines causing outages across the island.
At the height of the storm just after 3pm BELCO said up to 1,000 homes were without electricity an estimate which they later revised to more than 4,000.
BELCO's Linda Smith-Wilson said work crews were out fixing the faults and that the situation was 'manageable' and in most cases power was being restored within 90 minutes.
"Crews have been out since 12.43 am today."
She said Mangrove Bay in Somerset, Happy Valley in Pembroke and Forest Hills in Warwick were the worst affected areas.
"There seem to be some areas that have gone off and back on again all day," she added.
"Some of it is lines coming down or branches hitting the lines and shorting them out."
Meanwhile all today's flights to and from Bermuda were cancelled.
The 6:20pm British Airways flight and 8:40pm American Airlines flight were cancelled late in the afternoon with the other 12 flights already cancelled in the morning.
All ferries were cancelled. Garbage collection was not completed today. The West route will be completed tomorrow with the East route postponed until Wednesday.
Umm....ahhh....what ever happened to the new bridge that is supposed to be built to make it safer to cross during high winds? Also, why was Watford bridge not closed as it is more exposed than Long Bird. And one more thing, if the cars move slowly across the bridge in 65mph winds, all that they will get is a good salt water wash. Seems that the powers that be make hasty decisions on poor information. Oh and the waiting bridge crossers were at more risk of a large tree branch falling and crushing their cars than being washed overboard.
Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Comment by:
Carlita BURGESS
I believe all businesses should have closed at noon. When you are directly in the path of a storm or hurricane you cannot predicted the strength whether it will increase or decrease. I'm glad no one was hurt but it was very un-nerving driving in it.
Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008
Comment by:
Bruce McClarron
Could you really expect a higher level of PROFESSIONALISM from this SUPPOSED Government??
It appears the only time they govern well, is when it's time to spend the Public's purse on lavish traveling and exorbitant lifestyle modes!! (Homes,Cars, Security, etc)
Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008
Comment by:
Phillip Wells
So are they closing the Causeway or not? At the top of your story you say "Public Safety officials said they were in the process of closing the Causeway at 4.30pm", but at the bottom "at 4.20pm today the Bermuda Weather Services was advising Government on whether or not to close the causeway".
