Island hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

For the threat of high winds was enough to force many stores to shut down for the day while the Island's hotels received a stack of last minute cancellations.

And Government will also be left with a massive overtime bill from the Police Service, Bermuda Regiment and Works and Engineering ministry, all of which had extra staff on duty around the clock to help in the clean-up operation.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Sharon Jacobs agreed that the one-day shutdown has cost the economy thousands of dollars.

But she added that stores considered themselves fortunate to have suffered very little material damage and to have only lost one day's trading.

"Certainly being closed for one day does impact on a company's bottom line,'' Mrs. Jacobs said.

"There would have been thousands of dollars that haven't gone into the economy because everything was closed.

"You have to consider that we had a Tuesday when we didn't have our airline visitors and no cruise ships came in. The stock exchange was closed and the banks were closed.

"From a retail point of view it's a serious loss to the economy by being closed for a day.

"Once Government made their statement that the schools and Government offices would be closed and people were being urged to stay indoors there was concern and we wanted our people to be safe.

"You have to remember that it looked as though it was going to come to within 60 or 70 miles. I think so many businesses were equating it with structural damage and from that point of view people did very well.

"We are also very lucky that it was just a one-day scenario which is obviously a much smaller inconvenience than if everything had been shut down for a week.

"In that sense Bermuda is very fortunate. Everybody is rallying around and trying to pick things up again. It's amazing to think that we can have something like this and, 24 hours later, everybody is back at work and we have a functioning economy.'' A Government spokesman agreed that there were hidden expenses that could cost the Island dear, although he added that a final figure would be impossible to quantify.

The cost of Gert "You have to consider things like all the man hours lost because schools and businesses were shut down,'' the spokesman said.

"There will also be overtime bills from the Police, the Regiment was embodied and we had people out doing the cleaning up.

"We also lost out on things like wharfage because the cruise ships didn't arrive, or the airlines.

"There will be a bill but to put a handle on it is difficult to say. It has probably cost the Island more in lost revenue.

"But we were lucky in that we weren't really hit. With Hurricane Emily the final bill came to about $55 million, but then the regiment was embodied for three weeks. With Gert we're just talking about one day.'' A Police spokeswoman confirmed that officers were placed on 12-hour shifts and that extra hours were worked, although again a final figure had not been calculated.

Hotel owners also claim to have lost out. Several owners said the lost revenue from cancelled bookings would run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And the Bermuda Electricity Company also incurred costs as teams worked around the clock to repair downed lines.

"There will be costs but mainly in labour,'' a company spokeswoman said.

"In terms of materials there wasn't that many poles down. But our overhead crews were working on the restoration effort where normally they might be working on system upgrades.'' But material damage across the Island was limited.

Corporation of Hamilton Secretary Roger Sherratt confirmed that there was hardly any structural damage to the city.

"One set of traffic lights opposite the bus terminal were knocked down but they were repaired first thing on Wednesday,'' he said.

"A few small trees were knocked over and there were plenty of small branches on the road.

"They were swept to the side and should all be picked up by tomorrow.

The Island's glass repair companies and landscaping companies also said that the flood of calls that had been anticipated failed to materialise.

"We've had about ten calls from people with broken windows but that's about it,'' John Woolgar of Bermuda Glass said.

A spokesman for Island Glass and Metal added: "We've really had no serious complaints apart from the fact that some window shutters aren't working properly.'' The Island's insurance companies also had a light day.

Nathaniel Butterfield of Butterfield and Son said: "We did have one claim in for about $10,000 for a house because of inundation by sea but apart from that I think we were very lucky.'' Last night Gert was several hundred miles to the north of Bermuda and tracking away from the Island.

Meteorologists expect the hurricane to calm down to tropical storm strength later today and confirmed it was no longer a threat to the Island.