Authorities in Portugal's Azores Islands said they received no reports of major damage or injury as weakened Hurricane Gordon passed the mid-Atlantic group of islands Tuesday night.
Gordon lost strength and veered slightly south as it approached the sparsely populated islands, bringing only light rain and a moderate wind, Ricardo Barros, vice president of the Azores Civil Protection Service, said.
"There's been nothing unusual so far," Barros said.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami discontinued its hurricane warning for most of the nine islands. It said Gordon was just barely a hurricane with top sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). A storm is considered a hurricane with 74 mph (119 kph) winds.
The Civil Protection Service took most of its staff off standby but maintained its high alert status on two islands, Sao Miguel and Santa Maria.
Gordon was passing directly over Sao Miguel, the largest island with about 140,000 inhabitants, and close to Santa Maria, weather services said.
In Santa Maria, there was a power outage in some parts of the island and a few trees fell blocking some roads, Civil Protection said.
"The island is suffering the effects of the depression right now but no major problems have been reported," Civil Protection officer Pedro Carvalho said, adding the storm was expected to pass by 1100 GMT.
The islands lie about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) off the west coast of Europe.
Portugal's Meteorological Institute on Tuesday issued a red alert, which denotes extreme risk, amid fears of winds gusting up to 170 kph (105 mph) and waves up to 12 meters (40 feet) high.
Authorities advised people to stay indoors and ordered the cancellation of school classes Wednesday as a precaution.
TAP airline also cancelled its morning Azores bound flight from Lisbon.
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