Lashing rain and winds are being blamed for cutting electricity supplies.

At least seven parishes were hit -- Smiths, Paget, St. George's, Hamilton Parish, Warwick, Devonshire and Pembroke.

Smiths was the worst affected after palm trees were brought crashing down on power lines. One Smiths resident said she heard a huge explosion shortly before 10 p.m. "Everything suddenly went black. We are having to live by candlelight,'' she said.

A Devonshire resident said: "All the street lights were out as I was returning home. It's pitch black here.'' Radio stations went off the air, and Harbour Radio in St. George's was forced to use an emergency generator. A Fire Service spokesman said: "We have suffered an outage as well.'' Bermuda Electric Light Company engineers were last night working flat out to restore power.

Belco spokeswoman Mrs. Linda Smith said a circuit was lost in the Collectors Hill area of Smith at 9.27 p.m.