Bermuda issues storm watch for Hurricane Katia

MIAMI, (Reuters) – Bermuda issued a tropical storm  watch today as forecasters warned that large and powerful  Hurricane Katia could pass close enough for residents of the  mid-Atlantic island to feel its outer squalls.
With top winds of 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour),  Katia was a “major” Category 3 storm on the five-step  Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.
The center of the storm was 370 miles (600 km) south of the  British colony of Bermuda, forecasters at the U.S. National  Hurricane Center in Miami said. Katia was moving northwest and  was expected to pass between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast on  Wednesday and Thursday.
The core of the storm was expected to stay over water, but  Katia was more than 400 miles (640 km) wide and its outer gusts  and thunderstorms could reach Bermuda, forecasters warned.
Bermuda’s government issued a tropical storm watch for the  island’s 70,000 residents. Despite its small size and isolated  location, the territory is a global reinsurance hub.
“Tropical storm-force winds, especially in gusts, are  possible on Bermuda through Thursday,” the U.S. forecasters  said.
Katia was generating massive swells and potentially deadly  rip currents that threatened beaches all along the eastern  United States, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles of  the northern Caribbean, the hurricane center forecasters said.
After passing midway between Bermuda and the Carolinas on  Thursday, Katia was expected to weaken and curve away from the  United States on a path that posed no further threat to any  land.