Destruction

Omar hit at 1:30am, hard. The wind was so strong that I couldn't open my door. I peaked out the window and my beloved tomato plant was almost flat against the concrete. The palm trees were bent over in the yard and I could hear the waves pound the 50ft cliff at my house. I wish it had been daylight so I could have seen the ocean. It rained non-stop.

When morning came, the sky was still darkened, but all was quiet. The waves were still huge. They must have been 15 ft at 8am. Neighbors came from up the street to look from my house, as my view is excellent. Then the rumors started.

Cell phones were down, the power was out, water was not to be trusted. School was, of course, still canceled. We heard that Sprat Net's (a lobster and bar) was gone. Boulders the size of my bedroom were washed up on shore to occlude the roads. Those I confirmed myself. Truly amazing that they could wash up so easily as sand. Water is a powerful force.

We also heard that the strip of bars on Timmothy Beach had been swallowed by the sea.It was bad, flooded and covered in 4ft of sand, but still there. The video below (if it works) is the beach.

I emerged at 4pm to assess the damage. The dogs came with, and were total pills. Very unlike them, but they had been cooped up in the house for days. When I drove west, toward Sprat Net's, I saw the cause of the power failure: all the powerline polls were snapped. Great, how long will this take to fix?

I turned around and started toward the capital, Basseterre. There, the sea met the road, and waves were still quite tall. A guy, about my height (5ft 7in/170cm), ran away on Bay Road when a wave struck.

When I was satisfied with my post hurricane island exploring, the dogs and I headed home. I crawled back into the warmth of bed, quite tired from the 2 hours of activity I'd had that day.

About an hour later, all of a sudden, and quite unexpectedly, the power came on! Someone must have been motivated to fix those down lines.

I called mom, who had left half a dozen emails, phone calls, and other messages. Then called dad, who informed me how bad St Croix was hit. They have a curfew from 6pm to 11am and many ships sunk in the Christiansted harbor and yaght club. So, I survived, and I suppose it could have been worse (like it was at dad's house!).