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And the flood waters rose...but at least we were on St. John
And the flood waters rose...but at least we were on St. John
July 18-27th, part 2
Part 1 here: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17478
Now that our group was all together, it was a matter of waiting for the skies to clear to enjoy the island. Monday morning was decent enough to give an island tour, stopping at all the picture points and pleasing everyone with a stop at the smoothie truck. By afternoon though the skies had opened up again and it was back to the house where we started working on a jigsaw puzzle that took most of the week to solve.
We were on a budget when we went rental shopping. We were trying to keep the price down really low-our friends had been initially thinking of camping or the eco tents, but we persuaded them to join us in a house with the advantage of a pool etc. After all the rains, they were soooo happy they'd decided on a house. Great Escape was an older house, and it’s definitely got some “tired” issues. But the deck is nice and long and the pool was a great place to cool off after a morning at the beach.
The biggest concern I had was it has no a/c. I know, you’re thinking----July on St. John and no a/c???? You must have been dying from the heat! But it was a wonderful location—the breezes from Reef Bay were incredible. We didn’t have bug issues, it wasn’t hot-in fact back home in NY the humidity was about 90% along with the temps and it was cooler and more comfortable where we were on island!
The rain-we’ve never been on St. John when it has rained this much. I can’t even remember anything other than brief showers before. I didn’t pack umbrellas or rain coats. I was VERY happy though that I brought my new Ipad. I’m not a gadget person, but I love this thing. I have the one that’s wifi and cellular enabled and I’d purchased the AT&T plan-asking our rental agent first how coverage would be down there. We could not get coverage on any of our cell phones-our service was Verizon, and there’s was some pre paid card, but I had coverage the whole time on the Ipad with the AT/T. I was able to stay in email contact with our cat sitter and work (hmmm, now which was more important??) watch the radar and get weather reports, and it was a great help.
Basically it showed that Tuesday was going to be a washout and it was-so we decided to go shopping. We showed our friends around Mongoose junction, making stops at the wonderful Deli Grotto-a place we’d enjoy at least 3 more times, the Tap Room, the Gecko Gazebo (we had to have someplace to hang out while our friends shopped, right?) and a few stores. While we were there, it started pouring, and did not stop pouring all day. I believe that the reports showed 5” of rain on Tuesday. It was crazy. We went and ate lunch at Sogo’s-a must stop on every trip, and stopped into St. John Spice, where we semi missed Ruth, but did find a fantastic Elaine Estern tshirt showing the signs/goats/sheep of Coral Bay. Love this shirt!
At this point it’s pouring iguanas and donkeys and we’re thinking we’d best get back to the house. Our house was almost at the very end of Marina Drive/Reef Bay road. The water on the road was crazy. When we reached Arawak road, traffic was stopped. One of the guys in front said the water was too deep to drive through-he walked it and it was up to his KNEES! He told us “you’ve got a rental car, you try it!” Sorry, we decided to wait it out We waited about 20 minutes and it eventually slowed down enough to make it through-but here’s some pictures/videos of how much water there was. Sorry for the quality-it was a bit bumpy!
View My Video
They were building a new house and it was in the direct line of one of the runoffs:
View My Video
View My Video
It was a crazy day---but we were back in our house, tucked in snug and with friends making many batches of lime/coconuts so life wasn’t so bad!
Oh, and can’t forget-there was a minor earthquake that night centered above St. Thomas, 4.5 on the Richter scale. Happened between 8-9 pm, while we were working on the puzzle suddenly everything just shook for a few seconds, like a big truck was driving by, but there wasn’t any truck…. Our friends had just experienced the small tremor outside Washington just the week or so before, and they immediately said “Earthquake!” but we were saying, no way! So the trusty Ipad proved its usefulness once again and shortly thereafter the news report showed up that yep, not only were we experiencing floods, but we’d just been through a minor quake-whoopee!
PS, if there's a better way to post videos please let me know, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.
Part 1 here: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17478
Now that our group was all together, it was a matter of waiting for the skies to clear to enjoy the island. Monday morning was decent enough to give an island tour, stopping at all the picture points and pleasing everyone with a stop at the smoothie truck. By afternoon though the skies had opened up again and it was back to the house where we started working on a jigsaw puzzle that took most of the week to solve.
We were on a budget when we went rental shopping. We were trying to keep the price down really low-our friends had been initially thinking of camping or the eco tents, but we persuaded them to join us in a house with the advantage of a pool etc. After all the rains, they were soooo happy they'd decided on a house. Great Escape was an older house, and it’s definitely got some “tired” issues. But the deck is nice and long and the pool was a great place to cool off after a morning at the beach.
The biggest concern I had was it has no a/c. I know, you’re thinking----July on St. John and no a/c???? You must have been dying from the heat! But it was a wonderful location—the breezes from Reef Bay were incredible. We didn’t have bug issues, it wasn’t hot-in fact back home in NY the humidity was about 90% along with the temps and it was cooler and more comfortable where we were on island!
The rain-we’ve never been on St. John when it has rained this much. I can’t even remember anything other than brief showers before. I didn’t pack umbrellas or rain coats. I was VERY happy though that I brought my new Ipad. I’m not a gadget person, but I love this thing. I have the one that’s wifi and cellular enabled and I’d purchased the AT&T plan-asking our rental agent first how coverage would be down there. We could not get coverage on any of our cell phones-our service was Verizon, and there’s was some pre paid card, but I had coverage the whole time on the Ipad with the AT/T. I was able to stay in email contact with our cat sitter and work (hmmm, now which was more important??) watch the radar and get weather reports, and it was a great help.
Basically it showed that Tuesday was going to be a washout and it was-so we decided to go shopping. We showed our friends around Mongoose junction, making stops at the wonderful Deli Grotto-a place we’d enjoy at least 3 more times, the Tap Room, the Gecko Gazebo (we had to have someplace to hang out while our friends shopped, right?) and a few stores. While we were there, it started pouring, and did not stop pouring all day. I believe that the reports showed 5” of rain on Tuesday. It was crazy. We went and ate lunch at Sogo’s-a must stop on every trip, and stopped into St. John Spice, where we semi missed Ruth, but did find a fantastic Elaine Estern tshirt showing the signs/goats/sheep of Coral Bay. Love this shirt!
At this point it’s pouring iguanas and donkeys and we’re thinking we’d best get back to the house. Our house was almost at the very end of Marina Drive/Reef Bay road. The water on the road was crazy. When we reached Arawak road, traffic was stopped. One of the guys in front said the water was too deep to drive through-he walked it and it was up to his KNEES! He told us “you’ve got a rental car, you try it!” Sorry, we decided to wait it out We waited about 20 minutes and it eventually slowed down enough to make it through-but here’s some pictures/videos of how much water there was. Sorry for the quality-it was a bit bumpy!
View My Video
They were building a new house and it was in the direct line of one of the runoffs:
View My Video
View My Video
It was a crazy day---but we were back in our house, tucked in snug and with friends making many batches of lime/coconuts so life wasn’t so bad!
Oh, and can’t forget-there was a minor earthquake that night centered above St. Thomas, 4.5 on the Richter scale. Happened between 8-9 pm, while we were working on the puzzle suddenly everything just shook for a few seconds, like a big truck was driving by, but there wasn’t any truck…. Our friends had just experienced the small tremor outside Washington just the week or so before, and they immediately said “Earthquake!” but we were saying, no way! So the trusty Ipad proved its usefulness once again and shortly thereafter the news report showed up that yep, not only were we experiencing floods, but we’d just been through a minor quake-whoopee!
PS, if there's a better way to post videos please let me know, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.
Last edited by toni on Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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SOonthebeach
- Posts: 1707
- Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:01 am
- Location: Texas
Scary Rain...Tuesday July 20
You're description of the driving conditions were perfect! I've never been so scared before and like you thought our Jeep might get washed away! Our villa was cozy and snug once we were able to move debris on the road to get to it! Fortunately, this was not our first time on STJ and we look forward to returning next year 
Jody
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DuxDweller
- Posts: 158
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:49 am
- Location: Boston
DuxDweller-different Great Escape-this is the economy one 
The rains were absolutely crazy. The jeep worked great going up and down the hills though, and you know how steep they all are. My husband did a fantastic job; I was worried we wouldn't make it up a hill or that we'd slide down once we got to the top, but no hydroplaning.
It was an experience!
The rains were absolutely crazy. The jeep worked great going up and down the hills though, and you know how steep they all are. My husband did a fantastic job; I was worried we wouldn't make it up a hill or that we'd slide down once we got to the top, but no hydroplaning.
It was an experience!