Hurricane Danielle huffed and puffed and then headed away from the Island and into the energy sapping cold waters of the North Atlantic last night.

The storm, which at its closest point of approach was 175 nautical miles away to the northwest of Bermuda at around 8 a.m., was responsible for 0.34 inches of rainfall and a top gust of 51 knots, reported the Bermuda Weather Service.

It also caused power cuts and airline delays and cancellations while local emergency staff were called out to deal with a series of small incidents.

Eight main lines and several branch lines were knocked out by the storm, plunging an estimated 5,000 Bermuda Electric Light Company customers into darkness.

The main lines affected areas throughout the Island but power was restored to all of them by 5 p.m., said Belco spokeswoman Robin McPhee.

The power outages were all caused by the high winds, she noted, although some transformers were also affected.

As of 10.30 p.m., the majority of branch lines were back up and running, along with a number of the scattered individual properties, but there were still about 40 people without power. Some 15 to 20 people were expected to be without power in Paget overnight.

Ms McPhee noted that Belco crews -- who hit the road and began working on restoring power when the first call came in at 3 a.m. -- would be working until midnight by which point three-quarters of the remainder should have power restored.

The crews would then break and be back on the job at 8 a.m. She apologised for any inconvenience this might cause.

And Ms McPhee added that yesterday's scheduled power cut for a large area of Ord Road -- to allow Belco workers to do line work -- was postponed until a date could be decided on in October.

She said area residents would be consulted in the hope of finding a convenient date to turn off the power.

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Bermuda International Airport said American Airlines was forced to cancel its early morning flight to New York. The flight left at noon and went to Boston instead.

American's flight from Boston to the Island was also cancelled but its later flight to Bermuda from New York was set to go ahead.

Also affected was Delta Airlines which cancelled its regularly scheduled flight from Boston to Bermuda and US Airways which cancelled its flight from New York to the Island.

However Delta's flight to Bermuda from Atlanta did arrive and was set to fly back to Atlanta -- instead of on to Boston as normal. The spokesman said he expected passengers bound for Boston on Delta would be accommodated on that flight and rerouted to their original destination.

And US Airways' flights to the Island from Baltimore, Charlotte and Philadelphia operated as normal, he continued. Passengers scheduled to fly from New York to the Island earlier in the day were likely transferred to these flights, said the spokesman.

Continental Airlines flew its normal flights between Newark and the Island, said the spokesman.

Local emergency service staff had a busy night on Tuesday with strong winds and wet conditions creating treacherous road conditions.

There were a total of 24 road traffic accidents reported between Tuesday afternoon, when the winds first started picking up, and yesterday lunchtime, after the worst of the weather had passed. Eleven people were injured.

In the most serious accident, a 25-year-old Paget man broke both legs and also injured his shoulder and wrist after his bike came into collision with a car on Middle Road, Devonshire at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Study links hurricanes and global warming: Page 3 Slippery roads caused crashes The victim was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for treatment.

The 24-year-old woman car driver was not injured but extensive damage was caused to both vehicles.

In a separate incident, a 47-year-old visitor was taken to hospital with a broken leg after losing control of her vehicle on Cochrane Road, Sandys Parish.

A Police spokesman said that many of the 24 accidents were caused by vehicles skidding into the back of proceeding vehicles.

"We would appeal to all motorists to drive with extreme caution and reduce their speed on the wet and slippery roads and pay particular attention to standing water and debris from the recent heavy rain and high winds,'' the spokesman said.

Although the strong winds caused no serious damage during the night, North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish was partially blocked for some time after a tree fell across the road.

Traffic near the Perfume Factory built up until the obstacle was removed.

The Fire Service was also called out on several occasions in the early hours of yesterday morning to put out minor fires caused by damaged electricity cables.

The one emergency service that did not seem to have a busy night was Harbour Radio.

"Everyone seems to have kept their heads down until the hurricane passes,'' a spokesman said.

Hurricane Danielle was classed as a category one storm last night and was expected to be further downgraded to extra-tropical status by this afternoon.

At 6 p.m. yesterday it was tracking northeast at 26 knots with 70 knot winds and gusts of up to 85 knots. It was centred some 370 miles south-southwest of Sable Island, Nova Scotia.

It is the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. The fifth storm, Hurricane Earl, was last night located in the Gulf of Mexico moving northeast toward northwestern Florida at 10 mph, a path that would bring the category two storm's centre to land sometime early today.