-- producing howling gales and driving rain.

Screaming winds of up to 60 miles per hour have caused power cuts, downed telephone poles and even cut out traffic lights across the Island.

Boats have been set adrift, roads flooded and scores of Portuguese Men of War washed ashore on the Island's beaches for the past two days.

But no planes had to be diverted because of the gales.

Weather experts said the storm, which first hit Bermuda earlier this week, was a "huge monster''.

And the winds have taken so long to die down because of an unusual weather phenomenon which stalled the giant depression 400 miles north of Bermuda.

Mick Rice, of the Bermuda Weather Service, said the storm was stopped dead directly underneath another low pressure system almost four miles high.

But meteorologists are predicting the storm will begin to weaken and move eastwards before the weekend, with winds dying down to around ten knots by Sunday.

Mr. Rice said: "People may remember that there were reports of tornadoes over Florida at the weekend.

"They were produced by a low pressure system with a cold front just off the Carolinas.

"And that weather system drifted eastwards until it got stuck between Bermuda and the Maritime provinces in eastern Canada.

"It was stopped directly beneath another low pressure system 18,000 feet up and that has caused the winds to persist.

"But the jetstreams, at 30,000 feet, should begin to pick up again now and they should see both systems weaken and move off eastwards.

"Basically, this is a massive weather system -- it's a huge monster of a storm.

"We will get winds for the next few days but they should get weaker and weaker.'' He said a ridge of high pressure would push the storm away this weekend, bringing better weather by Sunday.

Dr. Robbie Smith, of the Bermuda Biological Station, warned people to stay away from the Portuguese Men of War which have been blown onto beaches by the gales.

Stan Marshall, marketing manager of Shell Bermuda, said Esso had to loan the firm $150,000 worth of unleaded gasoline because the weather has stranded a tanker five miles off shore.

Belco reported a temporary power shortage in Smith's and traffic lights went down at the junction of South Shore Road and Middle Road in Paget.

And firefighters used an underwater pump to save a 32-foot boat which was sinking at Riddell's Bay Marina after taking gallons of water on board.