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