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Ernesto leaves a third of Puerto Rico without power as it heads toward Bermuda

Typhoon Ernesto on Thursday barreled toward Bermuda where it promised to produce dangerous storm rise and heavy rains after leaving hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans without power in its wake.

The Category 1 typhoon was 600 miles (965 km) southwest of Bermuda as it crawled north, packing winds of 85 miles an hour at daybreak on Thursday, the National Cyclone Center stated in an advisory.

Bermuda was under a cyclone warning as forecasters forecasted Ernesto to approach the British area late on Friday. By Saturday, Ernesto will be a large typhoon near the island where it will produce prolonged strong winds, flash flooding and hazardous storm surge, the center stated.

Preparations to safeguard life and residential or commercial property must be rushed to completion, the hurricane center stated.

Ernesto became a cyclone on Wednesday, thrashing Puerto Rico with heavy rains and intense winds. Images and video footage from the island revealed flood waters covering highways, downed powerlines and ruined homes and automobiles.

As of early Thursday morning, some 470,000 homes and companies - about a third of all clients on the U.S. area - stayed without electricity, according to LUMA Energy, the Caribbean island's primary power supplier. Around half of Puerto Rico's customers lacked power on Wednesday.

Ernesto was anticipated to remain well west of the U.S. East Coast as it took a trip north. Nevertheless, the storm was forecast to produce lethal surf and rip currents across the region, the center said.

Ernesto is the 5th called Atlantic storm of what is anticipated to be an extreme typhoon season. Slow-moving Debby struck Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane simply last week before soaking some parts of the Carolinas with up to 2 feet (60 cm) of rain.

Typhoon Beryl, the first of the season, was the earliest Category 5 storm on record in the Atlantic when it swept through the Caribbean and the Texas Gulf Coast last month, killing lots of people and costing an approximated $6 billion in damages.

(source: Reuters)