As tropical storm leaves Bermuda, Hurricane Ernesto is downgraded to….

As it leaves Bermuda, Hurricane Ernesto is downgraded to a tropical storm.

After battering Bermuda with intense rain and wind on Saturday, Hurricane Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical storm and left part of the British Atlantic Ocean colony without electricity. It then proceeded into eastern Canada.

The US-based National Hurricane Center states that although the hurricane, which made landfall in Puerto Rico earlier this week, “will move away from Bermuda” on Saturday night, it will still have the potential to produce tropical storm conditions.

It issued a warning that the storm would get stronger on Sunday “and Ernesto could regain hurricane status.”

According to the NHC, it touched down on Bermuda at 5:30 a.m. local time (0830 GMT), with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (137 kph).

The Bermuda Weather Service warned that seas will remain dangerous during the night. “Occasional squally showers from the west will continue to wet the Island as Ernesto moves further away to the northeast,” the weather service stated on Saturday night.

As Ernesto headed northeast and passed close to southeast Newfoundland late on Monday, “drier and brighter weather” was predicted for the island on Sunday.

Around midnight local time, Ernesto was located about 100 miles northeast of the island and was predicted to bring seven to nine inches (175 to 225 millimeters) of rain to Bermuda in total.

“The island will probably experience significant, potentially fatal flash flooding as a result of this rainfall, particularly in low-lying areas,” the NHC stated.

Approximately 18,300 customers, or over 50% of the island’s 64,000 residents, were without energy as a result of the hurricane, according to Bermuda’s power company Belco.

Pictures on social media featured flooded roads, toppled trees obstructing traffic, and power lines bent by the strong winds of the storm.