Powerful Hurricane Fabian Hits Bermuda
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
Hurricane Fabian, a Category-3 storm, is moving north-northwest and giving Bermuda its worst pounding since 1953.
September 6, 2003 -- The most powerful hurricane in 50 years blasted across Bermuda yesterday, pummeling the Atlantic island with 120 mph winds that snapped palm trees like toothpicks and turned tranquil blue waters into restless 10-foot-high whitecaps.
"It's terrific to watch but it's still intimidating," said vacationer Susan Chandler, 52, of Manhattan, who decided to stay and witness Hurricane Fabian unleash its wrath on the wealthy British colony.
"There's so much sea-spray in the harbor now it looks like it's snowing," she said.
Mayor Bloomberg's $9 million dollar vacation mansion in Tuckers Town, the most exclusive area of the island, also took a bruising.
Although building codes require homes to withstand sustained winds up to 120 mph, it was not known how much damage was done to the mayor's waterfront property.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also have home there.