The public today was warned to follow weather updates as gale force winds risked closing the Causeway at the weekend.

Air Canada has also cancelled its flight from Toronto tonight while about 520 Belco customers were without power at 3pm. The American Airlines flight this morning from JFK was reportedly diverted, and LF Wade International Airport showed several delays.

The ferry service is also cancelled for today and its reopening is being monitored.

Phil Rogers, the director of the Bermuda Weather Service, said a decision to close the East End bridge would not be made until tomorrow morning.

He added that if such a closure were to happen it would likely be in the evening when a second gale-force storm is expected to hit the island.

Mr Rogers said: “A big thing about this storm that’s forming tomorrow is that we’re going to have gales all days Sunday.

“It’s not going to improve much — it’ll be a very, very slow improvement of winds over Sunday.”

He added: “The other downside of Sunday is that, because it’s such a big storm, it’s going to grab that cold air and we’re going to get to very cold temperatures for Bermuda on Sunday. Probably mid-50s on Sunday.”

The BWS today issued a severe weather warning, with sustained gusts near 60mph forecast by this evening.

The BWS added that “increasingly hazardous” southwesterly swells would develop over the weekend as a powerful low-pressure system passes to the north of the island.

Mr Rogers said tomorrow’s system could come “very close” to storm-force winds and that the Government’s Emergency Measures Organisation was made aware of this.

He said that the Causeway could be closed if wind speeds reached 50 knots (just under 60mph).

He added that the most up-to-date models suggested wind speeds were “near 50 [knots],” though he added: “It’s really better that we look at it in the morning with the updated models.”

Mr Rogers said that weather this ferocious was “historically” normal around this time of year, albeit not frequent.

He explained that a “big pool of cold air” from the North American East Cast combined with the warm air of the Atlantic Ocean, leading to storms that impacted the island.

Mr Rogers said: “We’ve had a period of significantly severe storms in the winter, so I think it’s fallen out of Bermudians’ memories when we used to deal with these.

“So it’s not abnormal, it’s just going back to a period when it was a little bit more normal — say maybe 15-20 years ago when we were getting more regular winter storms.”

Mr Rogers said that the East Coast was expected to slowly warm up starting next week and thus lessen the driving force that formed storms.

He added that, in the meantime, the public should “stay inside and watch some TV” on Sunday.

All ferry services were suspended this morning in response to the fierce winds battering the island.

The Department Marine and Ports said ferry routes would be closely monitored to determine when services can resume and urged the public to call the ferry terminal on 295-4506 or visit www.marineandports.bm for more information.

Shortly after noon, Belco reported more than 1,600 customers had lost electricity — about a third of them in Devonshire.

The outage had been reduced to 520 customers by about 3pm.

Belco’s managing director Shelly Leman urged the public to remain vigilant as local weather forecasts placed the island under a gale warning with wet and windy conditions expected throughout the weekend.

She said that Belco teams were out working to restore power and told customers to notify the utility of any emergencies, such as pole fires or sparking downed lines, through the reporting line 955.

Ms Leman added: “I urge residents to secure their properties and remove or tie down all loose items in yards — including furniture, toys, trash cans and gardening equipment — that could become airborne projectiles during high winds and potentially contact Belco’s overhead wires.

“As an example, last weekend, an unsecured trampoline became airborne and caused a prolonged outage impacting customers in the Dolly’s Bay area of St David’s due to the damage sustained to overhead infrastructure.

“Customers are also reminded to unplug sensitive equipment and electronics if affected by a power outage.”

Ms Leman told drivers not to go around cones or barricades on the roads, since they are in place to signal working zones to protect the public and Belco crews from hazardous conditions.