The Day After

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI 1100 AM ...OMAR QUICKLY WEAKENING AS IT MOVES RAPIDLY AWAY FROM NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLANDS... CENTER OF HURRICANE OMAR LOCATED ABOUT 180 MILES...NE OF THE NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLANDS.

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There is a set of stairs on the lower town road that leads down to a vast expanse of sand at my fave swimming beach. The beach is gone, and the water (the day after) is lashing about 1/2 way up the stairs. The seas appear to be at last 4-5 feet elevated this morning, but it looks like it was much higher. There is significant debris, from the ocean, on the road. Conch shells are everywhere. The sea has combed the bottom from way out, and deposited a lot of it on the lower town road. Clean up has begun.

We appear to have survived the storm in great shape, but the true effects are yet to be felt. Not much damage to buildings, trees and such. It was loud, with occasional gusts of wind and very heavy rain from about 1 AM until about 330 AM...tapering off very quickly. Came and went pretty fast actually. I got a little water thru the windows and thru the walls at the addition seam (where kitchen and main room join), but it wasn't bad. A little mop up, little towelage, and it was done. Electricity was off from midnight until about 930 this morning which worked out fine. We'll likely find  out that GEBE, the electric company, actually turned it off on purpose to avoid injury, system damage and fire.

The biggest effect was felt on lower town with the seas, some are saying now, as high as 15-20 feet.  They are down now, but the waves are still lashing the back of the hotels and businesses down there. The hotel Catering Manager, "M", looks disgusted. Business owners are talking about water inside, whole beaches being washed away, debris covering the road, and worst of all, damage to the harbor port. 

That could be the effect that keeps on giving. The harbor, is our lifeline to supplies, water, everything really. Again, we'll see how that plays out over the next few days and weeks as the harbor begins to get going again. I've got 35 liters of water :) I think I'll be ok for now. Right now, everything is closed down there until the seas chill out a bit. They are still pretty high.

So all in all, I got a good amount of study done yesterday, will do so again today and have begun the push to midterms. I think we did pretty good but I'm sure that this was a wake up call to many who have never experienced the strangely scary feeling of a hurricane. It was  gentle reminder of days, storms gone by for me and now, the name "Omar" is fresh in my mind. That sux.