Strong winds and belting rain whipped Bermuda yesterday causing power outages, flight and ferry cancellations and damage to property.

Boss's Cove Boat Yard owner Llewelyn Hollis was just one of the unfortunates to be hit when extremely high winds gusted across the tiny harbour in Spanish Point, Pembroke early yesterday morning.

He described to The Royal Gazette how the roof came off his boat shed and ended up in the bushes halfway up the hill behind, due to what he and his friends considered to be a small tornado.

"I got called by the neighbours this morning,'' Mr. Hollis said, "and they told me that their satellite dish had been knocked down. Then I came down to my shed and found most of the roof had been ripped off.'' Donna Barnes, whose husband keeps his fishing boat in the cove, said: "Whatever it was must have been pretty strong because it ripped my husband's fishing nets, which were quite heavy from being wet, right out of the boat and across the water to the dock.'' She added: "When we came down this morning to check we just saw a mess.

"There were two boats turned completely upside-down, branches from trees all over the place and what we think to be a shutter from a house nearby floating in the water.'' One of the boats which was capsized, the 23-foot Midnight Express , is owned by Steven Antonition.

Tornado-like storm rips through Boss's Cove Helping him to right it was friend Kurt Madeiros who said: "It just flipped right over onto its side.'' Mrs. Barnes said: "For it to have turned over like that it had to be something pretty powerful.'' She and her neighbours were pretty sure that the damage was caused by a tornado ripping through the area.

"You can see how it cut right through the trees over there,'' she said, pointing to a line of damage in the bushes.

House owner Evelyn Daley described how she looked out of the window yesterday morning and saw that an outside wall had been knocked down.

"We've never really had that much damage during hurricanes and I didn't think it would be too bad today,'' she said. "But I was shocked when I looked out and saw the state of that wall, which has been here since long before I got here.'' But Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist Mark Guishard said the damage was not likely to have been caused by a tornado because the "specific set of meteorological conditions'' were simply not there.

"In severe weather situations, such as Bermuda has experienced recently,'' he said, "downdrafts from heavy showers or thunderstorms are often confused with tornadoes.'' Mr. Guishard added that tornado formation in Bermuda was "very rare'' due to the Island's type of marine environment.

"So far this year, no meteorological situation that could have produced a tornado has been documented by the Bermuda Weather Service,'' he said.

Mr. Guishard did report that south-southwesterly winds reached gusts of up to 53 knots at the airport and 63 knots at Harbour Radio, where recording instruments are higher and more exposed.

Such strong winds were the reason for many flight cancellations between Bermuda and gateway cities in the US and Canada.

One plane, the Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta, Georgia, was meant to be carrying the American-Russian Youth Orchestra for two performances in the Bermuda Festival.

Organiser Antoinette Davis said she was "very sorry'' to have to cancel it, but added the group would hopefully be on this afternoon's flight from Atlanta.

Ticket holders for last nights performance will be able to come to tonight's performance, although they may not be able to sit in the specific seat they booked.

The only plane still scheduled to land last night was the American Airlines flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. At Press time it was slated to leave the Big Apple around 11 p.m.

But American Airlines general manager Carol DeCouto said the plane scheduled to fly yesterday "went out as far as the runway and decided to turn back''.

As a result, passengers booked on that flight will be able to get to New York on the same plane which was scheduled to fly out around 7 a.m. today. It was not clear whether the flight which was scheduled to arrive from New York last night would leave today at its 7.20 a.m. departure time.

Ferries between Hamilton and Dockyard were also cancelled for the afternoon and evening due to the high winds, preventing pilots from being able to dock safely at the wharfs.

Heavy rain caused flooding in several parts of the Island and the rainfall figure at 2 p.m. yesterday was 2.19 inches.

Residents were also affected by power outages in several parts of the Island when three circuits, providing power for 2,000 people, went off the board at around lunch time yesterday.

The three areas, in Warwick around Longford Road, in Pembroke around Parson's Road and in Hamilton Parish around Bailey's Bay, were all restored with electricity within about an hour of losing it.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro and Arthur Bean Big blow: Steven Antonition and Kurt Madeiros (above) work hard to right the 23-foot Midnight Express which capsized at Boss's Cove, Pembroke during yesterday morning's gale force winds. Meanwhile, court clerk Nathaniel Turner (below) finds out just how strong the winds are as he braves the elements outside Supreme Court in Hamilton.