Hurricane Florence flails Bermuda

Hurricane Florence is hitting the island of Bermuda Monday with winds of 130 kilometers-per-hour and heavy rain.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the center of the storm will move very near the west coast of the British territory as it moves north over the Atlantic Ocean. The storm is expected to maintain its current strength throughout the day. It weakened slightly overnight.

The center says Bermuda can expect between 13 and 20 centimeters of rain and storm surges of up to 2.5 meters.
The island's airport is closed, emergency workers are on alert, and authorities have placed military volunteers on call for possible deployment after the storm. The electric company has warned of potential prolonged outages.

Forecasters expect Florence to stay away from the U.S. mainland, but say it will create high surf and rip currents along the east coast.
Satellite images show, on its current path, the storm could pass the eastern part of Canada's Newfoundland Island later this week.
Florence is the second hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic storm season.