Hurricane Earl observations
Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:28 am
We were in St. John during Earl's blow-by. A few observations-
Housing: We were tossed out of our villa on Gifft Hill as they boarded it up on Sunday. We were forced to find housing elsewhere. Westin had booked up by the time we called. Caneel told us to call back at 4PM. We called Gallows Point, and they told us they'd call back in an hour or two. Surprisingly, they did! So we packed up and moved down there. Had an oceanfront unit facing right out on the sound. May post a link to some of the video we shot during the peak of the storm. Folks at Gallows Point were very attentive, calling our room (and others), checking for problems during the storm.
Power: Unbelievably, for an island where the power can and does go out fairly often, we *never* lost power even once from Sunday afternoon, clear through the storm, and up until we left on Wed. A.M. It flickered some, but never went off. I believe the rest of the island suffered long outages.
Trip Insurance: I thought for sure that our CSA travel insurance would certainly cover the additional $1200+ we had to spend to stay at Gallows Point under the Trip Interruption clause. DUH! I must have forgotten that most insurance policies seem to be written by *weasels*, so of course we're not covered. Since we were in the last 4 days of our trip, the coverage does NOT apply if your trip is interrupted and you have 4 days or less remaining. AAAGGHH!
If any forum members have any thoughts on all of this, I'd love to know.
I've also got some great snorkel spot info for all St. John snorkelers that I'll share in a future post, shortly.
Even though the last 4 days of our trip to St. John were tarnished by Earl, we're happy that the island didn't suffer a direct hit, and that it should heal quickly.
-AwardB
Housing: We were tossed out of our villa on Gifft Hill as they boarded it up on Sunday. We were forced to find housing elsewhere. Westin had booked up by the time we called. Caneel told us to call back at 4PM. We called Gallows Point, and they told us they'd call back in an hour or two. Surprisingly, they did! So we packed up and moved down there. Had an oceanfront unit facing right out on the sound. May post a link to some of the video we shot during the peak of the storm. Folks at Gallows Point were very attentive, calling our room (and others), checking for problems during the storm.
Power: Unbelievably, for an island where the power can and does go out fairly often, we *never* lost power even once from Sunday afternoon, clear through the storm, and up until we left on Wed. A.M. It flickered some, but never went off. I believe the rest of the island suffered long outages.
Trip Insurance: I thought for sure that our CSA travel insurance would certainly cover the additional $1200+ we had to spend to stay at Gallows Point under the Trip Interruption clause. DUH! I must have forgotten that most insurance policies seem to be written by *weasels*, so of course we're not covered. Since we were in the last 4 days of our trip, the coverage does NOT apply if your trip is interrupted and you have 4 days or less remaining. AAAGGHH!
If any forum members have any thoughts on all of this, I'd love to know.
I've also got some great snorkel spot info for all St. John snorkelers that I'll share in a future post, shortly.
Even though the last 4 days of our trip to St. John were tarnished by Earl, we're happy that the island didn't suffer a direct hit, and that it should heal quickly.
-AwardB