Belco crews were out braving windy conditions as hundreds of customers were without power this morning.

As gale force winds hammered the island, Shelly Leman, the company’s managing director, said the most affected areas were at Pembroke, Paget, Hamilton Parish and St George's. Crews were out until 2am this morning and were back in the field at first light, she said.

Some flights have been cancelled as a result of the poor weather, airlines citing customer safety.

“The gale force winds associated with the low pressure system have caused impacts to overhead power lines and infrastructure across the island, with significant vegetation blown into power lines contributing to the large number of outages,” Ms Leman said.

“Belco will have teams out throughout the day, working as long as it is safe to do so, to restore power to all affected customers as quickly as possible.”

At 10.25am, Belco’s outage map showed 1,345 customers without power including 414 at Warwick, 353 at St George’s, 381 at Paget and 141 in Devonshire.

In the latest forecast update, the Bermuda Weather Service said showers were expected to return from mid-morning today.

It said a complex triple centred low weather system continued to deepen to the west through to the north of the island.

The BWS said: “Blustery showers return and strong winds intensify into a gale again by mid-morning, with storm force gusts especially in and around showers.

“Winds southwesterly strong gusts to gale force, veering west-southwesterly gale force with gusts to storm force by mid-morning, with stronger gusts in elevated and exposed areas, then veering westerly towards evening.”

Tonight, the island is expected to experience cloudy conditions with a few blustery showers with strong gale force gusts.

As bad weather conditions persisted today, multiple flights were cancelled to and from the island, according to Skyport’s website and at least one air carrier cited the safety of its passengers.

BermudAir flights from Toronto, Orlando, New York, Boston, Montreal and departing flights were cancelled “due to deteriorating weather conditions in Bermuda”, the airline said on its website.

“At BermudAir, your safety is our priority,” the airline said.

Arrival and departure flights operated by American Airlines, Delta and United were also cancelled, according to Skyport’s website.

Meanwhile, Belco reported that its emergency number 955 was temporarily out of service and its IT team was working with the company’s telecoms partners to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

“In the event of an emergency, such as a pole fire, please contact Emergency Services immediately,” the company said.

Customers experiencing partial current should e-mail info@belco.bm for assistance.

The company encouraged customers to follow its social media channels or visit belco.bm for the latest updates on restoration progress.

Almost 2,300 Belco customers lost power yesterday evening as gale force winds battered the island.

A total 2,298 customers were without power as of 10pm on Saturday with the bulk in Hamilton Parish where 1,428 had lost electricity and Southampton where another 610 homes were in the dark.

Another 206 lost power in Warwick, while Paget and Devonshire had 30 and 13 outages respectively.