Island-Sity

High surf kicked up by the storm has already swept two people out to sea in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, far to the south.

Several people in the Bahamas stared mesmerized at the 12- to 15-foot waves, including Peter Mills, 44, who took his wife and two children to John Smith's Bay Park to watch.

"It's absolutely spectacular, but it's probably going to be absolutely horrifying come the next couple of days," Mills said.In Mexico, meanwhile, the remnants of Hurricane Karl soaked south-central portions of the country as authorities sent helicopters to rescue scores of people stranded by flooding and hunt for others feared washed away.

At least five fatalities were reported: a 61-year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl killed when a landslide buried a house in the town of Nexticapan in Puebla state, and a woman and two young children swept away by a rushing river in Cotaxtla, Veracruz state.

Tropical-storm-force winds were forecast to start battering Bermuda Saturday night, with the hurricane expected to pass directly overhead or nearby late Sunday or early Monday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Around midday, Igor had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and was located about 360 miles south of Bermuda. It was headed north-northwest and expected to curve toward the British Atlantic territory.