Hurricane Nicole is expected to hit Bermuda tomorrow causing disruption to the island’s services and schedules.

On this page The Royal Gazette will provide updates on shipping and airline schedules, school closures, businesses that will close and events that have been postponed or cancelled.

If you would like to share the latest details on your business or event e-mail news@royalgazette.com, call 278 0146 or send us a Facebook message.

Stay safe Bermuda

Advice

• Belco has urged residents to safeguard valuable appliances and sensitive equipment by unplugging them when winds increase and throughout the storm. Trees hitting power lines and flying debris can cause surges on the electricity system and damage equipment. Should you lose power during the storm, keep your appliances disconnected. Throughout the storm the Belco network is monitored by Grid Operations and engineers are aware of outages affecting major circuits and large areas. As it is unsafe for Belco crews to respond to outages during the storm, we ask customers to please refrain from calling 955 as it is important to leave lines open for emergency communications.

• BF & M has reminded residents to take all necessary precautions and to prepare for Hurricane Nicole. See BF & M’s Facebook page for hurricane awareness tips. Call 295-5566 with any insurance-related questions before the storm. Opening hours will be communicated as soon as possible after the storm and the BF & M 24-hour property claims hotline 298-0247 will also be available for a quick response to claims-related queries.

• Argus Insurance is reminding clients that they can contact the Argus Customer Service Centre on 298-0888 with any questions regarding their insurance cover and for preparation advice and support in advance of the approaching hurricane. For hurricane preparedness tips to help residents protect their families, pets, homes and belongings, visit the Argus website at www.argus.bm. Following the hurricane, please contact the Argus Claims Hurricane Hotline at 298-0888 for the latest update or to leave claim information.

• The Bermuda Society for the Prevention of Animals has reminded the public to ensure their animals have a secure environment during the storm. Lost and Found Animals can be reported through the SPCA website www.spca.bm using the “Lost & Found” tab, and more disaster preparedness tips and a list of emergency supplies can be found at www.spca.bm.

• West End garbage should not be placed out for collection until the Ministry makes further announcements about resumption of collection services. All recycling services have been suspended for this week and are rescheduled for next Thursday in the West End and Friday in the East. Roads permitting, crews may resume normal waste collections on Monday.

• Pension benefits via direct deposit will be available today at HSBC at 12pm and at BNTB at 9am. For those receiving pension cheques, every attempt will be made to have them delivered to households this morning. However this is not guaranteed due to the weather conditions and timing of the mail delivery at such short notice.

Schools

• All public schools will close at noon today and remain closed tomorrow and Friday.

• Saltus Grammar School will close early today and remain closed tomorrow and Friday. The school will close in a staggered manner today to prevent traffic congestion.

• Mount Saint Agnes will be closed today and tomorrow.

• Warwick Academy will close early today in a staggered fashion to alleviate as much traffic congestion as possible. The school campus will close at 2pm today and will be closed throughout tomorrow. At this stage the school will be closed on Friday and it is the school’s intention to be open on Monday.

• The Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning will be closing at 12.30pm today and will remain closed tomorrow.

• The Adult Education School in Hamilton will close at noon today and reopen again on Monday.

• The Onionpatch Academy will close at noon today. It will remain closed tomorrow through Friday.

• Bermuda High School for Girls will close today with staggered release times. All students must be collected by 1pm. The school will remain closed on Thursday and Friday.

• Somersfield will dismiss students early today and will not be open on Thursday. Following the storm, the facility will be assessed to determine readiness for resuming school operations.

Travel Disruption

• British Airways has cancelled services to and from Bermuda today and tomorrow. The airline is offering flexible rebooking options for customers who are due to travel either today tomorrow. Customers should check the BA website, www.ba.com, for the latest information.

• American Airlines has cancelled today’s inbound flights from JFK airport in New York and Miami, while tomorrow’s return outbound flights to the same airports have inevitably also been cancelled.

• Hamilton Docks are expected to close today.

• Three cruise ships have already cancelled visits because of weather concerns. The Grandeur of the Seas had been scheduled to arrive in port on Monday, while both the AIDAluna and the Norwegian Breakaway had been expected to arrive today.

• The Bermuda Islander has delayed its arrival into Hamilton from tomorrow until Friday.

Business Closures and Event Cancellations

• All After School Programme sites will resume programmes on Monday. The three community centres; St. George’s, Hamilton and Sandys, the Tennis Stadium, softball diamond, public fields and public islands will be closed as of 3pm today and will resume services on Friday.

• Both BAMZ and the Bermuda Zoological Society will be closed on Thursday with plans to reopen on Friday pending storm damage to the facility. BAMZ will remain open until 5pm this evening.

• BF&M will close at 1pm today and plans to reopen on Friday.

• Gibbons Company will close its stores at 2pm today and they will remained closed on Thursday.

• Colonial’s Reid Street offices will closing at 2pm today. As long as the EMO has deemed it safe to be on the roads its offices will be open on Friday as normal.

• Freisenbruch-Meyer Group will be closing at 3pm today and intend to reopen at 9am on Friday.

• Esso service stations at Collectors Hill, Crawl Hill, Warwick and Port Royal will close at 7pm along with Esso City in Hamilton, Sandys Esso and St George’s Esso. The BIU Esso service station will be closing at 3pm and St David’s Esso will be closing at 5pm. Service stations are expected to reopen on Friday morning after they have been assessed.

• The Washington Mall will be closing today at 3pm and hopes to open at the usual time on Friday.

• FedEx will close at 3pm today and remain closed on Thursday. There will only be an inbound flight today, the outbound flight is cancelled, so no packages will be picked up. Thursday’s inbound and outbound flights are also cancelled. Friday operations are unknown and dependent on weather and government notices and the airport reopening.

• Rubis Service Stations closures: Waterfront, Hamilton Harbour 12pm; Van Buren’s Marine in Flatts 3pm; Raynor’s in Southampton 5pm; Causeway Service, Dowling’s Auto and Marine, Paget Service, Robinson’s Marine and St John’s Road Service 7pm; Boaz Island and Terceira’s 8pm; and East Broadway and Warwick South Shore 9pm.

• Argus offices will close at 12pm today and reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.

• Clarien Bank’s offices will close at 2pm today and remain closed tomorrow. Operations are expected to resume on Friday.

• Government offices will close at 3pm today and reopen on Friday.

• The Bermuda Stock Exchange and the market will close at 2pm today and remain closed for tomorrow. Thursday will not be a trading nor settlement day. The BSX anticipates that it will reopen for business at 8.30am on Friday.

• Butterfield Banking Centres and offices will close at 2pm today and will remain closed tomorrow. Butterfield anticipates reopening for business at 10am on Friday. Butterfield Online and Butterfield Mobile Banking will continue to be available for transactions, however the processing of wire transfers and certain other requests received after 10.30am today may be delayed until the Bank reopens for business.

• HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited’s branches will close today at 2pm and intend to reopen at 10am on Friday. The following ATMs will remain operational: 24/7 Access, Harbourview Branch, Reid Street, Rural Hill Plaza (Ice Queen). Merchant-dependent locations: KEMH, Crawl Hill Esso, Port Royal Esso, Supermart Limited, Warwick Shell (South Shore),

Warwick Esso (PHC), Dockyard.

• The Gilbert and Sullivan Society has cancelled today’s and tomorrow’s performance of The Magic of the Musicals. Those who have purchased tickets via Ptix.bm can exchange for tickets to shows on Friday and Saturday. An additional matinee will be added on Saturday.

• The Corporation of Hamilton has announced that trash collection in the municipality will not take place tomorrow. Residents are advised not to leave garbage on the sidewalks or designated garbage areas after 10pm this evening.

• DE Mortimer & Co will be closed tomorrow, and all orders must be received before 9.30am today for delivery pre-storm. Customers can call 236-8848 or e-mail sales@demortimer.com for more information.

• The Clocktower Mall in Dockyard closed last night and will reopen on Friday.

• DanceSations School of Dance will be closed today and tomorrow, but classes will resume on Friday.

• The National Sports Centre will be closing today at 12pm and remain closed throughout tomorrow. A spokesman said: We are not sure exactly when we will be reopening. Once we are able to get in and assess the damage, we will inform the public when we expect to reopen.”

• The Cake Shop in Hamilton will be open today between 6am and 3pm, but closed all day tomorrow.

• Kit ‘N’ Caboodle will be closed tomorrow, but tentatively set to reopen on Friday.

• The Family Affair Children’s Boutique will be closing today and will reopen on Friday at 9am.

• The Barn, The Pink Café and the Gift Shop at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital will be closed tomorrow.

• AF Smith will be closing at 2pm today and is tentatively set to reopen on Friday.

• Belco’s offices will close at 11am today.

• Bermuda Stock Exchange and the market will close at 2pm today and remain closed tomorrow. Tomorrow will not be a trading nor settlement day. The BSX is expected to reopen for business at 8.30am Friday.

• CellOne has announced early closures for their offices in Hamilton, Southampton and St George’s today. All offices will be closed tomorrow. The Payment Centre on Victoria Street, Hamilton will close at 8.30am today. The Customer Care Centres, CellOne (700-7000) will be open 24 hours. The Logic Customer Service (296-9600) will be closed between 8.30am and 11.30am today and closed tomorrow. Logic Cable & Merge support (292-5544) will not be available between 9am and 7pm today and closed tomorrow.

• Magnum Power Force Gym and Diet Centre will be open until 3pm today, but will be closed all day tomorrow and reopen on Friday morning.

• Ornamental Ironworks will close today at 1pm.

• Endsmeet Animal Hospital will be closing at 3pm today.

• Rosa’s and Chopsticks will remain open all day today, with last orders at 7pm. Both restaurants will be shut tomorrow.

• The TBI Administrative Offices and Customer Care Center will close at 2pm today and expects to start normal business operations on Friday morning. The Technical Support Center will continue to operate 24/7, and can be reached on 278-2460.

• Menuhin Foundation violin, viola or cello lessons today, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday have been cancelled along with all Saturday orchestras.

• PALS Cancer Care will be closed today at 1pm and all day Thursday and Friday. It will reopen for business on Monday at 9am. In case of an emergency, you can page the on-call PALS Nurse on 236-2345.

• Spa Oasis will be closed on Thursday, but pending power and road access, plans to open for business on Friday at 10am

Postponements

• The PAC meeting postponed to October 13 has been cancelled. The Chair and members will establish a new date for the next meeting in due course.

• Bermuda Hospitality Institute’s annual fundraiser “Bermuda’s Rising Chef of the Year Competition” which was set to begin on Thursday has been postponed. BHI will advise alternate dates as soon as possible.

• Wednesday night bingo at Devonshire Rec has been cancelled and will resume on Saturday.

• The monthly meeting of the Garden Club of Bermuda scheduled for this Friday has been rescheduled for next Friday.

• The Chewstick Fire Exhibition and Art Auction in the Chubb Building that was scheduled for tomorrow is now postponed until next Wednesday, October 19, between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.

• The first meeting of the suicide support group, Loss, has been postponed from today until Wednesday, October 19, at 5.30pm.

• The Consultative Immigration Reform Working Group has postponed its round table discussions scheduled for this week. The forums, which were due to be held today and Thursday, will be rescheduled to another date.

• Warwick Academy has postponed its open house. The Whole School (Year 1-11) Open House event will now be held on October 20 from 9am to 11am and the Sixth Form Open House on October 19 from 5.30pm.

• Three upcoming Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre events including Cocktails & Conversations at Luxury Gifts, Bosom Buddies Girls Night In and its Fish Fry have been postponed. Please e-mail events@chc.bm or call 236-1001 for more information. • The City Arts Festival will now be held in the upper level of Pier Six on Front Street on Saturday from 2pm to 8pm.

• The Alliance Francaise of Bermuda’s second showing of Tomorrow, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed until Friday, October 28.