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- Updates from the Islands -- - St.John (USVI) - - |
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| - And the rain continues |
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The local feral chicken sang this morning for the first time since Sunday, and for awhile, early this morning, it looked like the weather was going to break. However, the rain started up again around 8:30 am. The chicken showed up at our house around 1:30 this afternoon ---- he never does that -- and I could only guess that it might mean he was planning to roost early, and that we might be in for another round of horrendous rain. The chicken was right! It has been pouring all afternoon. I understand that we have gotten more than 12 inches of rain this month -- and I don't believe that includes yesterday and today. I am watching the ghut AGAIN as the water run-off continues to grow and grow. My car stopped running yesterday, and our business computer is out as well -- apparently all weather related. Don't want to complain, though. Life is good in general -- just damp. And we are all in the same boat. There are minor land slides -- our neighbor has one under her house, but most of the land/rock slides that we have heard about are along the roadsides, and have not been too serious. I believe most public schools were shut down today on St. John and St. Thomas and non-emergency government workers were told to stay home due to the dangerous road/weather conditions. I don't know how much more water the soil can hold, but things are supposed to improve tomorrow. |
| - Rain Continues But So Does Hope! |
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Just wanted to check in and let everyone know that the rain continues, off and on, although the sun is trying to peak through for the first time since Monday. It started with a bang Saturday night -- extremely heavy rain with lightning (so we've been having very heavy rain for the past six days, except for a little sun on Monday). The winds picked up during the overnight early Tuesday morning, blowing with gusts that I would estimate to be around 40 miles per hour. That still continues, off and on. The water level in our cistern has gone up about five feet in the past few days, and it is a 22,000 gallon cistern. It is full for the first time in several years. The ghuts are running full blast during the heaviest of the rains. The one closest to our house has branched off a few "streams" that we have never seen before. Hope it doesn't spread any wider. We had to shovel away loose rocks that have blocked the road drains from time to time. There have been minor rock slides along some of the roads, but nothing big enough to make them impassable. Schools have been closed for the past few days in spots on St. John and St. Thomas. We were without power from about 2:30 pm Tuesday through the overnight on St. John and the east end of St. Thomas, then again on Wed. morning on all of St. John and St. Thomas for several hours. Since then, the lights are on, although I have heard of spot outages. Cable TV has also been out from time to time. The weather is certainly unusual, even for this time of year. (A day or so of this heavy rain at a time would be more usual.) We've had to bail our dinghies out several times over this rainy period because they were close to being totally underwater. There were several in Coral Bay on the eastern side of St. John that looked to be sunk. To put the amount of water we've received into perspective, we've been getting inches per day. Hope we've reached the end of it. |
| - update |
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September 13, 2003 8:30 AM I am writing from the beach on west end of St. John, on Pillsbury Sound. This morning dawned sunny, with light winds out of the NW, cooler than the past days. Hurricane Isabel to this point has taken the same route as Fabian, with the same weather repeating itself. On the shore, there is a surge, but no waves inside Pillsbury Sound. I can see the large swells on the North Shore coming thru the smaller Cays, and know that the surfers are out. If we have the same conditions as Fabian, Isabel will take the wind with her, leaving us no breezes, hot and no rain. We should rejoice that it was only a near miss. E. Estern |
| - Now a Category 5!!! | |
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| - Hurricane Fabian | |
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| - St.John USVI |
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Hi Gert.It's a beautiful day here on St.John.They are having the annual Labor Day parade right down the street from me here in Coral Bay and I can here all the "HOT HOT HOT" music as I write this. Most everybody had been making hurricane preparedness plans(e.g.boats moved to safe harbors, rental villas all shuttered up,etc) but with the projected path of Fabian heading north of us, I think everybody has relaxed and gone back in the holiday mood. I hope the weather people are right but I'll feel better when I see Fabian start his turn north and just leave us with some well needed rain. Take care, Doug A.K.A.Crabby |
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