Bermuda Mending After Hurricane Gonzalo

MEXICO CITY — Crews began clearing roads across Bermuda on Saturday after Hurricane Gonzalo battered the Atlantic island overnight, uprooting trees, tearing off roofs and downing power lines.

Although the Category 2 hurricane hit Bermuda directly, the small island was spared major damage, and the police said there were no fatalities. The island is in the path of major Atlantic storms and regulations require all buildings to be made of concrete blocks to withstand severe weather.

Bermuda, a prosperous British overseas territory that is a center for international business and a tourist destination, had prepared for an even stronger hurricane as Gonzalo developed into a Category 4 storm on Thursday. But the storm weakened slightly as it made landfall on Friday evening with winds of 110 miles per hour.

The winds damaged the roof of the old wing of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital but most patients had already been moved into a new wing that opened last month.

More than 80 percent of the island’s homes lost power during the storm but Bermuda’s electric utility, Bermuda Electric Light Company, said it had already begun restoring power early on Saturday.

Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva said that the police would focus on reopening the island’s blocked streets for emergency vehicles. “Unless it’s a life or death emergency — checking on your boat is not an emergency — we won’t let you pass,” he told Bermuda’s emergency broadcast station.