Monthly Archives: October 2008

Hurricane Omar Update #5 Friday at 3:30pm

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Just wanted to let everyone know our power just came back on a little bit ago. Much of the island is still without power however so the 6:00pm curfew remains in effect.
The real reason for this one last update is to let you know that I added additional photos to what I put out there yesterday. Emily and I went into downtown Christiansted for lunch today. The “protected” harbor was a bit of a mess to say the least. According to the newspaper there were more than 40 boats that had sunk. The paper also mentioned reports of power lines snapping in half and most trees being uprooted on the southeast side of the island.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.p.walter/Omar?authkey=RQGAbo15uNQ#


Omar Update #4 12:30 pm (day after)

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The damage from the storm doesn’t seem to be to terribly bad from my vantage point. I drove around a little while ago and there are many trees down all over the place, blocking roads, knocking down fences, etc, but that seems to be the extent of it, at least on my little area of the island.

I still don’t have power, hopefully later today. I saw crews out fixing downed lines.

Here are the photos I took this morning: http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.p.walter/Omar?authkey=RQGAbo15uNQ#

Omar

Omar Update #3 3:30am

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The storm has passed and we are all fine. It picked up speed and moved through the area quicker than I initially expected. Omar turned into a category 3 and things were extremely loud and noisy from about 10:30 – 1:00. I was questioning whether the windows were going to hold with so much pressure put upon them. We got a bunch of water through our water facing windows (because they are crap), but other than that no issues inside the house. It is no longer raining so I walked down to the water (the sea is extremely loud at the moment) but it was hard to tell anything. Lots of palms and coconuts on the ground.

I lost phone service around 11:15 or so. Surprisingly that just came back up a little after 3:00.

No power yet but likely tomorrow at some point. Curfew in effect until 11:00 am.

Thanks for all the concerned emails and calls.

Maybe some aftermath photos to come tomorrow.


Hurricane Omar Update #2 8:30 local time

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The high winds have begun and the rain is coming in sideways. The power has also just went out this very minute. But my sprint wireless card appears to be functional. I had just started watching the US Soccer game too, so that is a bummer.

They issued a 6:00pm curfew and called in the national guard earlier today, but I doubt many folks would be out in this weather. Emily just lit a few candles and the kerosene lantern which should be bright enough to read by actually. The battery operated fan is now going too. We have also moved into the interior room with no windows.

It doesn’t appear that I will be able to get any storm photos this evening as it is pitch black outside. Forecast is to get worse over the next 4 hours and then hopefully be gone by early morning.

The photo is from late this afternoon. Tons of rain and more to come.


Welcome to the USVI – Courtesy of Hurricane Omar

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Well I haven’t been here long but am already getting a Caribbean welcome from Hurricane Omar after only 2 weeks on the island. This hurricane kind of sprang up out of nowhere yesterday and pretty much caught everyone off-guard. On Monday I was thinking that we had a very easy hurricane season. Not anymore. A category 2 is bearing down on us. The eye is supposed to go directly over St. Croix around midnight. At this point we have decided to hunker down in our beach rental. We are going to see how things go this afternoon and may end up at one of Emily’s co-worker’s house later on. Not easy to find somebody that will take in 2 of us, 2 dogs, and 3 cats. Our one concern is the storm surge. Right now it is only estimated to be 1-3 feet on the south shore, so we should be ok. The storm is coming from the south and we are on the north shore facing northeast.
Current condition is very heavy rain with very light winds. The winds are supposed to pick-up through the afternoon.
I helped one of Emily’s friends put their hurricane shutters on early this morning. We went to the hardware store to pick up a gas can and it was a freaking zoo. All the gas stations were jam-packed too.
We are well stocked on food, water and ice. The gas is topped off in the car.
I figure I should have internet at least through early evening.
You can track the hurricane here if interested (it is updated every few hours): http://www.stormpulse.com/tropical-storm-omar-2008

We made it! We have moved to St. Croix.

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Since Emily has been really slow at posting (yes it has been a year) I will go ahead and let everyone know we finally made it. Yes, it has been two plus years of planning and researching (of course we did other things during these two years) but we finally made it. We first arrived on August 17th. I have been back and forth several times to Dallas to get the dogs, figure out house stuff, and ship all the crap that we don’t need down here. We shipped our first car at the end of July and Berry from Flemmings Transport met us at the airport with it. That was nice. Expensive, but nice.

I arrived on Tuesday as my official move date. Emily has been here 6 weeks now. We are staying in a beachfront rental temporarily. Trying to rent something while off-island was a bit of a pain so we found a vacation rental that would give us a “decent” rate for a 3 month rental. I wouldn’t say it is perfect, but it is on the beach. It is definitely serviceable. There has been so much water in the air this week that it is literally dripping off the fan and puddling below. The temporary screens on the window are constantly wet. The waves have been enormous as well. I have no idea how high they were, but at Judith’s Fancy the other day I would wager that at a few spots they were reaching at least six feet. I could be way off but they looked really big to me.

Much has happened in the past year, but I will let Emily update you. Look for frequent posts and photos from here on out.