Bermudians covered shop windows and stocked up on candles, food and water as Hurricane Fiona slammed into the Atlantic island on Thursday as a powerful Category 4 storm, after leaving a trail of devastation across the Caribbean.

The Bermuda Weather Service said the center of Fiona is expected to pass more than 180 kilometers west of British territory around 5:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Friday morning, but with a storm of this strength and size, residents took no chances.

“This storm is going to be worse than the last,” Richard Hartley, owner of the Torwood Home store in the capital, Hamilton, told AFP as he and his wife covered the store’s cedar-lined windows with sheet metal.

“The wind is direct from the south. So that corner is very exposed to the winds,” he explained.

Fiona is a Category 4 hurricane, the second highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 130 mph with higher gusts.

Gale force winds extend more than 70 miles from the storm’s eye and tropical storm winds up to 200 miles, the NHC said.

A hurricane warning was in effect in Bermuda as of Thursday morning, with the NHC predicting up to 10 inches of rain and “large and destructive” waves and storm surges.

The British territory, which has a population of around 64,000, is no stranger to hurricanes — but it’s also tiny, measuring just 21 square miles and one of the most remote places on earth, 640 miles from its nearest neighbor, the United States.

That means there’s nowhere to evacuate to if a big storm hits.

“You have to live with it because you live here, you can’t walk anywhere because it’s just a small island,” said JoeAnn Scott, a shop assistant in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to “enjoy it as it comes,” she said. “And pray and pray. That’s what we do, pray and celebrate,” she added, laughing.

Due to the isolation of the island, the preparations are being taken seriously, even if no major damage is expected.

Many of the boats docked at Bermuda’s Dinghy Club and Yacht Club were pulled out of the water earlier in the week, patio furniture in homes and restaurants was brought in and the storm blinds on the windows of most homes were checked.

Public schools will close on Friday and the government announced buses will be suspended later Thursday afternoon. The Royal Bermuda Regiment was on standby to assist with clearance operations.

In addition to stocking up on candles and food, some Bermudians also drew buckets of water from the tanks next to their homes.

There is no source of fresh water on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to collect rainwater, which is piped into tanks as the main water supply. It is then pumped into households with electricity.

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is prosperous compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have been doing this for centuries.

“The build is really built to last, and we don’t see the devastation that the Caribbean has seen over the years,” said shop owner Hartley’s wife, Elaine Murray.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic, according to US media.

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a US territory still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader has declared three eastern provinces disaster areas.

Further north in Bermuda, residents continued to watch Fiona closely in case the storm pivots further east in the coming hours – but islanders have been calm.

“I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, so no, I’m not worried,” said resident Rochelle Jones.

But if something goes wrong, Bermudians “will all come out together and help each other,” she said.