The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm was about 340 miles (545 kilometers) southwest of the archipelago at 11:00 am ET (1500 GMT). Its core was expected to pass near Bermuda Wednesday evening before moving away by Thursday morning.

"Bermuda is resilient. We have faced hurricanes before, but every storm is different, and every storm must be treated with the utmost seriousness," Michael Weeks, the minister of national security, told reporters.

Authorities ordered closure of the Causeway -- a long bridge connecting the islands, suspended public transport, shut the airport and government offices, and opened an emergency storm center.

Footage from local Bernews.com at 1600 GMT showed rough waves pounding idyllic shorelines.

The NHC forecast two to four inches (50-100 mm) of rain from Wednesday into Thursday, raising the risk of flash flooding. A dangerous storm surge, combined with large and damaging waves, was also expected to produce coastal inundation in areas exposed to onshore winds.

The British territory was earlier hit by the outer bands of storm Humberto, which is no longer a hurricane and is now petering out in the middle of the Atlantic.

BELCO, the island's electricity utility, reported on X it was working to restore hundreds of power outages from that storm.

The company added people should not call to say their power was out: "Our phone lines must remain open for emergency calls, such as pole fires, downed power lines, and other critical situations."

Meteorologists say an unusual interaction between the two storms helped spare the US East Coast.

The so-called "Fujiwhara interaction," in which two nearby cyclones rotate around each other, prevented Imelda from making landfall on South Carolina's coast.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continues to forecast an above-normal season, though no storms have yet made US landfall.