would drift north up the US coast failed to materialise.

Early yesterday forecasters believed that the storm would move into a trough of high pressure which would carry the storm out of harm's reach by the end of the day.

But last night the storm slowed down and was left hovering between the US coast and Bermuda, with meteorologists predicting little movement in any direction by Dennis in the next three days.

Late last night the storm was positioned 490 nautical miles to the northwest of the Island at latitude 34.7 north, longitude 74.2 west. The closest Dennis is predicted to come to Bermuda is 418 nautical miles to the northwest in the early hours of tomorrow morning, although it will remain in roughly the same spot until at least Friday.

Currently the storm is blowing up winds of 80 knots, although these are expected to slow down to 65 knots by Thursday evening.

Last night Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist Carol Craig said it was a case of "wait and see'' and that Dennis was being monitored very closely.

And she warned that there was still plenty of time for the storm to do some serious damage to Bermuda.

"The movement of Dennis is starting to slow down a bit and that means that the upper level trough is not going to pick it up and drag it over to the northeast,'' Ms Craig said.

"It seems that we have some split guidance on our computer models at the moment. Our present guidelines indicate it's just going to sit out there between us and the US for a little while.

"As with all these storms there's always a chance of re-intensification. It will probably maintain its intensity.'' Although Bermuda has so far remained unaffected by Dennis, the storm did bring some problems to the coast of North Carolina and its fragile barrier islands.

Drenching rain and high winds knocked out power to thousands of customers.

Meteorologists cautioned that the hurricane's strong wind still could cause more problems for coastal residents.

Hurricane-force wind, of at least 74 mph, extended as much as 80 miles out from the centre, and tropical storm-force reached up to 290 miles outward in places, the National Weather Service said.

But the high sees have not affected Bermuda's cruise liner visitors.

All vessels were expected to keep to their regular arrival and departure timetables this week.

Henry Hayward, President of shipping agent Meyer Agencies, said he was confident that cruise ship arrivals and departures to the Island would be unaffected by Dennis.

"If Dennis continues its path up the coast things should be okay,'' he said.

"We have a ship leaving New jersey on Thursday and we hope that it should be well past by then.

"The rest of the cruise ships have already set sail and are coming in now.

Again it should have passed by the time they leave.'' Although the threat of Dennis still looms over the Island, forecasters were last night able to confirm that a second storm, Hurricane Cindy, was no longer regarded as having any adverse affect on the weather.

Just hanging around: Forecasters are expecting little movement from Hurricane Dennis in the next few days.

WEATHER WEA