The Minister of National Security said this afternoon that she was “happy” the island made it through “a very serious hurricane”.

Renée Ming asked residents to continue to be patient as work teams travelled across Bermuda to assess the extent of the damage.

She said: “I’m pretty sure that we all had a difficult night and morning but I’m happy to say that I now am sitting talking to you from what I believe to be the other side.”

Ms Ming thanked the public for it use of common sense and caution when Hurricane Paulette hit the island.

She added: “I would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank our emergency and essential workers because they have worked throughout this hurricane and it was a serious hurricane.

“We are here now able to talk about what our restoration actually starts to look like.”

The minister was speaking live on the Government’s Facebook page after a hurricane warning for the island was downgraded to a tropical storm warning.

She said: “The status has changed from hurricane watch, so what you’re seeing now is, we are in the midst of making assessments.

“We’re still encouraging persons to stay home because while we have persons on the road doing the assessments on the roads, on the Causeway, on buildings, we don’t want everyone ... be out there driving around and having a look right now because these assessments are critical to us being able to give an all-clear and open up.”

Ms Ming added that “the chances are” that the Causeway would not reopen today.

She said: “Belco are under way doing their assessment right now in terms of their critical restoration work.

“You may see Belco trucks out on the road and so be mindful that this is why we are saying please stay home because their assessments are important as well and we just want the public’s co-operation right now as we try to get everything up and going.

“We know that persons are looking to have their electricity or looking to be able to check on family members and so we are just saying, be patient with us, stay off the road, allow us to get our assessments done and we can get the country up and running as soon as possible.”

The Emergency Measures Organisation was expected to meet at 5pm with a view to releasing a public update at 7pm or 7.30pm.