Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the Atlantic island of Bermuda.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Florence will pass very near the British territory early Monday with winds of at least 150 kilometers-per-hour. The hurricane is expected to continue strengthening throughout the day.
Bermuda started experiencing tropical storm strength winds from the storm Sunday.
The center says the island can expect between 13 and 20 centimeters of rain and storm surges of up to 2.5 meters.
Bermuda's airport is closed, emergency workers are on alert, and authorities have placed military volunteers on call for possible deployment after the storm. The electric company has warned of potential prolonged outages.
Forecasters expect Florence to stay away from the U.S. mainland, but say it will create high surf and rip currents along the east coast.
Satellite images show, on its current path, the storm could pass the eastern part of Canada's Newfoundland island later this week.
Florence is the second hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic storm season. Ernesto struck last month, killing about 10 people in Haiti and the United States.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AP.