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- - - 2019 Hurricane Season - - -
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- Unexpected amount of rain; cistern overflowing
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- By Phyllis Benton <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:35:26 -0400
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On the Coral Bay side of the island, just under three inches of rain since mid
morning today - much of it coming in a fast downpours early to mid afternoon.
We picked up 2.90 inches so far. The cistern is full, overflowing, and the
entire area looks very green. A check on the Cruz Bay side shows just a
quarter of an inch of rain so far today. Guess some heavy cells just set up and
sat on top of the eastern part of the island. On a separate note, we had some
heavy winds, unrelated to this, for the past few days, but those died down
before the rain came. Right now very overcast and quiet. Hope all is well and
you are enjoying the holidays!
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- Karen, well sort of ...
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- By "John Fuller" <fullervi at gmail.com>
- Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 08:03:37 -0400
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After Dorian’s last minute shift we were taking no chances with Karen. While anticipated to pass nearby (50-90 miles) and not have gained strength we buttoned up for level one (that is closing all the louvers in doors and windows, putting away deck chairs and having some towels ready for the usual damp places). Level two requires putting more stuff in shelter and lowering one roll-down shutter. Level three is more work and lowering all the roll-downs. Lots more work. But we had only a little over half inch of rain overnight Monday night. OK, but Karen was going to pass Tuesday afternoon. Mostly a lovely day, partly cloudy and not too hot. Only .07” rain all day. Ferries had stopped on Monday and everything is closed Tuesday. Great day for relaxing and reading. So here it is Wednesday morning. We had some pretty gusty winds during the night and trailing rain bands for a total of .67” in the gauge this morning. St Thomas is “open for business” but since the ports are still closed there are no government services on St John. I expect the Post Office is still closed, and no matter since there has been no mail coming over since Monday. I see no reason that the ferries are not running, but then they haven’t asked me (and are not likely to). I guess we dodged another bullet here and I have special hopes for my friends in Puerto Rico that they also fared well under the worse conditions. John |
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- Getting back to normal; blustery with rain showers
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- By Phyllis Benton <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 19:51:42 -0400
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Great news! Our side of the island has power and cell service back as of about
4 pm this afternoon. So nice to have ceil fans to move the air around. There
were some boats that ran into trouble, and trees and other vegetation down, but
all in all, people did their best with a storm that was not expected to come in
so close and so strong. Because of loss of internet and phone early, we did
not know that the storm had changed direction and was headed directly for us,
and that is had strengthened so much. And the first power outage, early
yesterday, was not storm related according to the power company, but due to
loss of generating capacity. Good luck to everyone in Dorian’s path. BTW - we
continue to get periods of rain from the tail of the storm.
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- The butt kicking continued, but made out okay.
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- By "Crabbys at earthlink.net" <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 08:03:22 -0400
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We continued our unexpected butt kicking. Storm turned unto us; some trees
down across the island; a power pole down; we lost a section of rain gutter for
water collection, but otherwise made out well. No cell or power in the Coral
Bay side of the island; we are catching a celll signal from St thomas to tell
family we are okay, and to check messages and, of course, post this! A curfew
kept us in place until six this morning. We parked on a hillside to get a cell
signal.
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- A little shift and here we go.
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- By "Crabbys at earthlink.net" <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2019 11:57:59 -0400
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Out in Coral Bay on the eastern side of the island, wind has picked up
dramatically within the last half hour. I made the decision to board all
around vs leaving the leeside windows unboarded. Good decision. I am guessing
we are getting gusts around 50 knots currently; a ham outside of Cruz Bay just
confirmed that he is getting that as well. We were expecting this to be not
too much -mostly a rain event, but no such luck. I will continue to repost as
long as I have a data connection via my phone. Power was out early but told
that was not storm related. This latest round of power outage came after the
wind picked up, so don’t expect it to pop back on son, and ATT dues not have a
very long battery back up. - phyllis
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- First heavy rain bands moving through eastern part of St. John
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- By Phyllis Benton <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2019 04:30:39 -0400
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Storm shifted more toward our area. We started to get rain just before 2:30 am;
slow at first, then the fire hose turned on; picked up 6/10 of an inch in about
a half hour. Then quiet. Now more heavier rain bands are passing through. No
wind to report yet.
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- Lots of wind this evening as tropical wave moves through
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- By Phyllis Benton <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 21:05:08 -0400
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We did not expect to have to close up some of the shutters, but winds picked up
around 5 pm and have gotten stronger this evening. Shutters were having a tough
time staying pinned back so we boarded them up. Don’t think this wind was
forecast.
We had earlier thunderstorms move through with a lightning strike very close
by, but everything is fine. The shade cloth on our deck (used to have a roof
before the storms of 2017) came loose at one corner, so we tired that down with
rope just to keep it together. Then the winds broke two other corners loose so
we ended up cutting the fourth and taking it in. Not easy to do with the wind.
Great news: we found the top of our rain gauge today. Brought that one in
tonight for safe keeping!
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- Tropical wave(s) and some crazy mixed in
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- By Phyllis Benton <crabbys at earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 20:02:46 -0400
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Hello from St. John! Tropical wave(s) moving through; several days of off and
on rain, some heavy at times but still pretty nice for the most part. Today
has been dry so far with the sun trying to peak out at times. We had some sort
of crazy thunderstorm cell go through our neighborhood mid afternoon yesterday;
it gave us about 10 minutes of hurricane-like wind and rain; like a firehose
aimed against the house. Crazy, out of the blue; just so wild. Our outdoor
furniture was pushed around until it rested against something solid, and a
small tree came down - likely from the wind as it ended up falling in the
direction the wind was largely pushing. To add insult to injury, the top of our
rain gauge is now missing!!! Much quieter today and drier; some cloud cover -
nice for walking. - Phyllis on St. John
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