Winds packing gusts of up to 63 miles per hour and heavy rain stretched emergency services to the limit over the weekend.

The Fire Service dealt with nearly 30 calls from Saturday night through to Sunday morning, mostly from flooded-out householders.

And about 50 homes scattered across the Island lost electric power as branches caused short circuits on power lines.

Harbour Radio reported a host of boats being torn from their moorings or sunk by a combination of high seas and strong winds.

The Bermuda Broadcasting Company, based in Prospect, was off the air for around an hour yesterday afternoon after a falling branch struck a power line.

Police Headquarters was also affected.

Gusts of wind as strong as 63 m.p.h. were recorded at the peak of the storm in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A Fire Service spokesman said: "The worst affected areas seemed to be Somerset and Hamilton.

"We were very busy from about 9 p.m. on Saturday. The calls were all basically the same -- flooding from rainwater. Most of the incidents were minor, but some were a bit more serious.

"We've had quite a bit of rain. It's quite unusual and we had to do a lot of running around.'' Fire crews used pumping equipment to clear rainwater which had flooded the lower levels of houses.

Belco spokesman Ms Linda Smith said the power cuts affected individual homes across the Island.

Extra repair crews were called out yesterday to work around the clock to restore the service.

Ms Smith said the problems were caused by waterlogged tree branches bending and touching power lines or being blown down over the lines, causing short circuits.

"We are doing everything we can to minimise inconvenience to our customers,'' she said.

In Hamilton, two boats sunk in the Red Hole area of the Harbour after being swamped.

And the tourist boat Bermuda Belle broke her moorings at Coal Docks in St.

George's and drifted until running aground on Paget Island. She was taken in tow by the pilot boat St. David and brought alongside at Penno's Wharf as temporary shelter from the storm.

A spokesman for Harbour Radio said that two other smaller boats had also broke their moorings at St. George's and drifted until driven ashore by the wind.

The Police marine section was also kept busy by the bad weather -- a 25-foot cabin cruiser was driven on to the rocks near the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Hamilton Harbour.

The fishing vessel Wunderbar sank at her moorings at Market Wharf in St.

George's, while reports of other boats cast adrift or sunk came from Mill Creek, Riddell's Bay and Ely's Harbour.

A spokesman for the Bermuda Weather Service blamed the bad weather on an intensive low pressure system which passed to the west of the Island and was now headed for Newfoundland, Canada.

He said: "It was a little bit unusual to have such a strong weather cycle this early in the winter -- it's the sort of thing you expect more from December to February.''