Quake, Oil & Storms

Recent natural and natural events have quaked me out of study into writing again. I've been so slack keeping up with the blog. Which only means I've been actually studying and not been dragged hither and yon by attention diverting distractions.

I didn't really know about it until I friend, who lives in the Western U.S., asked me about it. Seems that anyone who doesn't live this way believes that the Caribbean is the size of New Jersey. Yes, we (collectively the Caribbean) got "quaked", but didn't feel it WAY out here in the NE Caribe; At least not that I know. On Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 03:24 AM, and earthquake With magnitude of 7.4 hit in the far western Caribe, off the coast of Honduras. Beyond the great rum they produce, seems that Cuba shielded this side of the Caribe from any major effects.  It was centered right offshore and did some damage including killing a several people. There was lots of talk about it here, but to my knowledge it wasn't felt at all. It did stimulate my thinking about our vulnerability to various and sundry forces. We never heard about it officially at school, no sirens were heard, not much of anything to indicate a problems at any time. And while we may never know, reports of the water level in Puerto Rico dramatically receding as much as 50 feet raised from the deep recesses of my memory all the training I got while living in Hawaii about tsunamis. We would be clearly vulnerable.

This same week, a potential unnatural disaster also happened. We had an oil spill. On Saturday, May 23, there was a large oil spill originating from a tanker vessel moored at the Single Point mooring just outside the Northern Reserve of the Statia National Marine Park.
The mooring is used by large tankers that are too large to moor up to the Terminal pier to receive or deliver crude oil. It happened at 1:45pm , and it ultimately got pretty big...4 km x 500 meters.

And then, it happened AGAIN, just 3 days later! On Tuesday, May 26, at 5:30am, there was another spill originating at the Single Point mooring. This one much smaller, but it really brought home how much impact this oil facility could have. A major spill could have serious effects for the island's environment and economy. The same spills, with currents running a different direction could destroy the reef here.

And to further my joy, hurricane season is about to start. Reminds me I have to stock up on water again since I almost ran out during a 5 day suspension of port services after our almost direct hit from Omar the hurricane. The storm blew in tons of sediment into the harbor and we couldn't get nothing from no place, no how. We truly are dependent on the lifeline of barges, and shipments.

But I have first major exams of the summer term, another potential unnatural disaster, to keep my mind off of spills and quakes. Is this a great island, or what??