Bermuda was slammed by another bout of bad weather on Saturday, leaving the Causeway shut for the second time in two days and 1,000 people without power.

The airport closed, ferries were cancelled and boats ran aground amid hurricane force gusts.

Winds reaching 67 knots at the Causeway led the Emergency Measures Organisation to close it for safety reasons from late afternoon until around 8.30 p.m.

The bridge was also closed all day on Thursday due to high winds, cutting off those living in St. George's and St. David's from the rest of the Island.

Susan McGrath-Smith of Belco said that the worst of the power outages occurred early Satuday morning when 1,000 customers were without power 800 of them on a main line in St. David's.

The St. David's power was soon restored. However, Ms McGrath Smith said last night: "Throughout yesterday and into this morning, we did have varying numbers of outages. With the weather being what it was, power was restored to some, while others went out.

"This morning we had approximately 175 customers without power with several branch lines affected, and two major pole replacements that had to be done. Everyone had power restored by approximately 5.30 p.m today. Crews worked throughout the weekend, and they and our operations centre really worked hard to keep the restoration process moving."

The L.F. Wade International Airport was closed from mid afternoon until late evening on Saturday. A number of US flights were cancelled including Continental, Jet Blue, US Airways and Delta, plus the British Airways flight from London.

Airport manager Aaron Adderley said last night: "We were experiencing hurricane force crosswinds out of the southwest yesterday afternoon, leading us to suspend operations at the airport as a safety precaution.

"Similarly, all scheduled commercial carriers assessing the same weather forecast conditions as we did, also opted to cancel their operations yesterday afternoon. Though airports with alternative runways can perhaps compensate for extreme crosswind conditions, with only one active surface, between 2 .p.m. and 8 p.m., we opted to close the airfield for only the second time in recent memory for a non-hurricane event.

"This has certainly been an exceptionally intense winter thus far with more weather-related flight cancellations than I can recall. Last night, both the American flights from Miami and New York respectively, and the Air Canada flight from Toronto which had patiently and quite admirably, waited for conditions to improve, arrived with full loads. British Airways, which had diverted to Boston due to the extreme weather, arrived this afternoon.

"In an effort to accommodate those stranded by yesterday's cancellations, a number of carriers opted to put on extra flights today, including Jetblue out of New York and Continental out of Newark. All other scheduled flights operated as per normal, with some 1,500 passengers arriving at LF Wade."

The ferry service was suspended from 1.30 p.m on Saturday due to the bad weather. It resumed yesterday, although the Belmont service remained cancelled.

A spokesman for Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre said the top speed recorded on Saturday at their hilltop monitoring station in St. George's was 63 knots at 5 p.m.

A speed of 64 knots is deemed to be hurricane force.

A 41ft sailboat broke free from its moorings at Ferry Reach on Saturday but grounded in some sand. A 27ft motorboat broke free in St. George's Harbour and hit the rocks.

Around six motorboats overturned near the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, some of which sank.

The spokesman warned that more bad weather is anticipated so boat owners should take advantage of predicted calm tomorrow before the winds blow up again.

"At this stage now everybody's moorings have been pretty well tested but people should take the opportunity to check them and check their bilge pumps," he said.

Another low pressure centre is due to bring a cold front tomorrow, with afternoon showers and strong winds lingering into Wednesday.