plunged into darkness by power cuts.

Power was down in several areas across the Island -- brought on by a combination of heavy rain and high winds.

Worst hit was Pembroke, with Pitts Bay Road, parts of North Shore Road, St.

John's Road and Dundonald Street all affected.

And staff at the Green Lantern restaurant in Serpentine Road had to down kitchen tools after everything went dark.

But problems with power were also reported in the Harrington Sound area of Smith's, Warwick and Devonshire.

One angry Smith's Parish woman said: "I'd just got in and I was hungry -- then everything went off. I'd already started cooking and dinner was ruined.

"I pay $55 a month for cable and I couldn't even watch that to take my mind off food.'' She added: "After the last hurricane and problems since, you'd think they'd have learnt their lesson.'' A spokeswoman for the Bermuda Electric Light Company said last night that extra crews had been drafted in to help the regular shift and were working "flat out'' to restore power to affected homes.

She added all the affected areas were expected to be back on the grid by the end of the night, with the longest outage being around six hours.

The spokeswoman explained that the problems were caused both by fallen lines and blown transformers.

She said: "Heavy rain, water and the amount of water in the trees have all played a part.'' And she added: "A lot of the problems are not the main lines, they are branch lines down to estate roads where there are a lot of trees and growth.'' The spokeswoman added that Belco was using underground power lines in new developments -- but said that there were a host of problems outside the company's control when it came to replacing overhead lines.

She said: "It's one of those annoying things -- it's a combination of legality, access and Bermuda having no shoulder on the roads so it's difficult to sink vaults.'' Weather forecasters said last night that the dismal weather is expected to continue through tomorrow at least, when a cold front is expected to move away to the east. Forecast: Page 20