Gusting winds rolled through the streets and a light rain spattered the city, but Cambridge weathered Hurricane Gloria without a serious incident, municipal officials said last night.

Power outages left roughly 25 percent of the city's homes without electrical power most of yesterday afternoon, according to City Manager Robert W. Healy, who coordinated the city's emergency relief efforts.

Damage was most severe in the western part of the city around Fresh Pond, where fallen trees and downed utility wires brought police cruisers and city cleanup crews to virtually every debris-littered street corner.

No injuries related to the storm were reported in the city.

Although several shattered windowfronts were spotted in Porter Square and Cambridgeport stores, only one incident of looting was reported last night. Cambridge police apprehended a man and woman allegedly stealing merchandise from a computer store at 1000 Mass. Ave. at about 2 p.m. yesterday.

Ready for Worst

Cambridge officials had prepared for Gloria's onslaught all week, designating three shelters across the city for stranded residents, preparing food supplies, and coordinating communications for law enforcement, said the city's civil defense coordinator, David B. O'Connor.

O'Connor said that 69 people--mostly with medical problems or small children--took refuge from the storm in the city-run shelters and received a school lunch, television, and cots. Officials offered free transportation to the elderly and handicapped.

Mary Costa, a resident of the flooded Bristol Arms apartment building, walked into the National Guard Armory on Concord Ave. around 10 a.m. yesterday equipped with her cribbage board, playing cards, and rosary. Costa said she would stay at the armory "as long as they can stand me."

Civil defense authorities also said they sent dinners to 85 senior citizens in a Mass. Ave. apartment building which was without power and food all day.

Square in the Eye

Harvard Square businessmen closed up shop early yesterday, taping windows and reinforcing storefronts. The worst damage occurred at the Coop, where the thirty-foot metal "Harvard Cooperative Society" sign crashed to the street at 1:30 p.m. No one was hurt.

It took five city workers to move the 27 year-old Square fixture, which they said would not be restored to its resting place above the department store's Mass. Ave. entrance.

While students from Harvard, MIT, and Boston University frolicked along the banks of the Charles River, others went on buying sprees for batteries, candles, and food at The Store 24 and even Au Bon Pain before it closed.

"People are stocking up. I don't know why they're stocking up on croissants, but they are," said Associate Manager Elliot A. Gillies.