Philipsburg, St. Maarten – Hurricane Gonzalo grew into a major Category 3 storm Tuesday and is expected to strengthen further as it heads toward Bermuda after killing a man in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten, authorities said.
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The storm had top sustained winds of nearly 115 mph (185 kph) and was centered about 770 miles (1,240 kilometers) south of Bermuda on Tuesday afternoon, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).
Forecasters said Gonzalo could become a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday as it spins over open waters through Friday on a track toward Bermuda. Category 4 storms have sustained winds of at least 130 mph (209 kph) with the potential to cause catastrophic damage.
“Folks in Bermuda are going to need to start paying attention to this thing,” Dennis Feltgen, a National Hurricane Center meteorologist, said by phone.
Gonzalo was blamed for the death of an unidentified elderly man who was aboard a boat in St. Maarten’s Simpson Bay Lagoon, which looked like a ship graveyard Tuesday with several masts protruding from the water. Acting Coast Guard Director Wendell Thode said 22 of the 37 boats destroyed by the storm were in the lagoon.
“Most of the boats that are destroyed are completely under water,” he said.
Officials in the nearby French Caribbean island of Martinique said they were helping in a regional search for five people believed to be aboard boats that went adrift or ran aground during the hurricane as well as two other people who reportedly fell overboard.
A statement said authorities on islands including Guadeloupe and St. Maarten were helping with the search. It was unclear where exactly the people reportedly went missing or how many boats were involved. Martinique spokeswoman Audrey Hamann did not respond to a request for comment.
Police Chief Peter de Witte said no one was reported missing in St. Maarten.
Most of the Dutch Caribbean territory was without water and electricity Tuesday, and residents reported losing roofs, doors and windows.
Susan Cuniff, who helps run the Liberty Inn hotel in front of Simpson Bay lagoon, said people were not prepared for a hurricane.
“It was a big storm, much bigger than people predicted, and a lot of bad things happened,” she said in a phone interview. “Boats crashed into each other and trees were downed.”
As Gonzalo headed northwest over open waters, it churned up heavy surf in Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern and central Bahamas.
Officials said flights departing Bermuda on Thursday, Friday and Saturday were fully booked. Robert Palmer, a spokesman for Canadian carrier WestJet, said only a few seats were available for flights Tuesday and Sunday to Toronto.
“It’s likely we’ve seen a spike in demand with word of the storm approaching,” he said.
Several hotels reported being fully booked with a mixture of tourists and locals.