HAMILTON, Bermuda (Reuters)—Hurricane Igor churned north on Monday on a track expected to take it near Newfoundland in easternmost Canada after battering Bermuda with heavy winds, waves and rain that caused damage but no casualties.

The Canadian Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for the coast of Newfoundland. North Atlantic Refining, operator of a 115,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Come-by-Chance, Newfoundland, said it was keeping a close eye on Igor.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the core of the large Category 1 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, was about 275 miles north-northeast of Bermuda, a popular resort and global insurance service hub, at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT).

Overnight, Bermuda experienced several hours of lashing wind, waves and rain. Residents of the British island territory reported uprooted trees, flying debris, widespread power outages, some flooding of streets and homes and boats torn from moorings. Bermuda has a population of more than 67,000 people.

Hurricane force winds extended about 90 miles from the core of Igor. The U.S. East Coast would experience rough surf and a stiff breeze, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

The hurricane was moving north-northeast at 24 mph. A turn northeast away from the U.S. coast and an increase in forward speed were forecast in the next 24 hours.

"Igor will continue to be a large cyclone as it moves past Newfoundland toward Greenland," the hurricane center said.

'Pretty wild night'

Official damage assessments were being carried out in Bermuda as Igor pulled away on Monday morning. Emergency crews were clearing felled trees and debris from roads.

Local police spokesman Dwayne Caines said there had been property damage across the island, but there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries.

Power utility Belco reported considerable damage to the electricity distribution system. Spokeswoman Susan McGrath-Smith said there were "many reports of broken poles, wires down and transformers down, affecting both high voltage and low voltage lines."

"We haven't been outside," Michelle Simmons, a school principal in St. George's, told Reuters.

"It was a pretty wild night," she said.

But Bermuda appeared to have suffered less from the impact of Igor than it did from Hurricane Fabian in 2003, which killed four people and caused millions of dollars of damage.

East of Igor, Tropical Storm Julia was breaking up on Monday and posed no threat to land.

The hurricane center said there was a high chance of a new storm developing west of the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic, as the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season continued this year's active pace.

In Mexico over the weekend, the remnants of Hurricane Karl dissipated over the mountains of south central Mexico, after killing at least eight people, emergency workers said.

Karl apparently spared Mexican oil operations from major damage after sweeping through the Bay of Campeche, where Mexico produces more than two-thirds of its 2.55 million barrels per day of crude output.