toward the Island with renewed vigour.

The latest update on Tropical Storm Mitch -- which earlier appeared to be fizzling out -- puts the storm at 23.5 degrees north latitude, 85.8 degrees west longitude, some 1,275 miles west southwest of Bermuda in the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm was moving northeast at 20 knots and was packing 40 knot winds with gusts up to 50 knots.

And the Bermuda Weather Service was forecasting the storm to pass within 150 miles of Bermuda at 4 p.m. tomorrow with 50 knot winds and gusts up to 60 knots.

Duty forecaster Dave Forbes said: "Something is threatening Bermuda. It will either be Tropical Storm Mitch or whatever its remnants are called.'' Either way, there would definitely be wind and rain, he continued, but the storm would likely be moving very quickly which was fortunate.

Re-born Mitch heading this way "It will be moving fairly quickly and when they do that the heavy rain doesn't last long. You get the devastating rain when these things move slowly or become stationary so we are fortunate from the view that it is moving quickly.'' Last night it was heading toward Florida where it was expected to strike today with heavy rain and wind.

Mitch killed thousands of people in Central America then lost much of its power. It regained tropical storm strength on Tuesday but was no where near the 180 miles-per-hour winds it packed when it struck Nicaragua and Honduras.

A National Hurricane Center spokeswoman said the Miami-based meteorological unit was not expecting Mitch to regain hurricane strength.

See pages 16,17 for more on Mitch