HAMILTON, Bermuda – Tourists lined up to catch the last flights off Bermuda and locals stocked up on emergency supplies Saturday preparing for approaching Hurricane Igor, while Mexicans mourned at least seven 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.

Additional Photos

People affected by Hurricane Karl wait in line for food in La Antigua, Veracruz state, Mexico, on Saturday. The Associated Press

“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 has already swept two people out to sea in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, far to the south.

Several people in the Bahamas stared mesmerized at the 12- to 15-foot waves, including Peter Mills, 44, who took his wife and two children to John Smith’s Bay Park to watch.

“It’s absolutely spectacular, but it’s probably going to be absolutely horrifying come the next couple of days,” Mills said.

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

At least seven fatalities were reported. A 61-year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl died when a landslide buried a house in the town of Nexticapan in Puebla state. In Veracruz state, a woman and two young children were swept away by a rushing river in Cotaxtla and two women were found dead in Felipe Carrillo.

Tropical-storm-force winds were forecast to start battering Bermuda 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 360 miles south of Bermuda. 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.

Sophie Dier, a spokeswoman for Elbow Beach hotel, said it was almost fully booked for the weekend until a business group and a wedding party canceled. Now the hotel will be around 10 percent full, she said.

Two Fairmont hotels also reported a 20 to 40 percent drop in occupancy.

“We have been proactively advising our guests to reschedule their travel plans,” said Shelley Meszoly, Fairmont’s regional marketing director.

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

“We’ve sold out of generators, tarpaulins, buckets, rope, screws, bottled water, coolers, even trash cans and plastic sheeting,” he said. “Anything people can use to secure their homes.”

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

“This decision has not been taken lightly,” editor Bill Zuill wrote in an article published Saturday. “It will be the first time in living memory that The Royal Gazette has missed an edition.”

The government planned to close the L. F. Wade International Airport by Saturday afternoon and likely will reopen it on Monday.

A causeway from the east end of the island to the rest of Bermuda was also to be closed.

Tropical Storm Julia, far out in the Atlantic, was weakening and not expected to threaten land.

Related Stories