With trepidation we watched the news reports yesterday as Hurricane Earl (category 4-5) battered the north-east Caribbean Islands including St. Martin, Anguilla, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and as far west as Puerto Rico.
Our thoughts were with the folks we've met and who live in the places we're coming to know and love in the islands. Reading about the damage to the dock at the Reef Hotel on Anegada and the government docks being underwater we wondered how any of the restaurants and hotels could survive so close to the ocean. The island only has a maximum elevation of 28' so one can't exactly find safety on higher ground. Reading the news reports today however, it appears the bulk of the damage is to trees.
Reading through Jay and Debbie's blog (Live De Life Living in the USVI's) it looks like St. Thomas experienced heavy winds and rains and then a second bout came through in the evening as the south-west quadrant of the storm came through. Some boats got caught in the complete change of wind direction and were unfortunately lost as they bashed into the shore, but it sounds like no lives were lost. (phew!)
Watching out for Fiona (Tropical Storm) but she appears to be running herself out of steam as she catches up with the tail end of Earl. While I'm sure she'll impact the local weather hopefully she won't have much punch left.
Mowzer is safely battened down in Puerto Rico so we're not expecting at this point to hear of any problems.
