USVI-On-Line

I see that Hurricane Dean has been discussed a lot here, thought you may want to hear a bit from "down island". Hubby and I were in Bequia last week, started hearing about Dean on Tuesday. No one on island seemed too concerned, as they haven't had a direct hit, or even a tropical storm, in years.
As Wednesday rolled around, everyone is slightly more nervous, as the storm is at 13 latitude, and appears to be heading our way.
By this point, we decide to move our flight from Bequia to Barbados from a Saturday departure to a Thursday departure. Bequia is a tiny island, not a great infrastructure, and the thought of getting stranded there was a little scary. So we got out on Thursday, and made it to Barbados around noon. The airport in Barbados was a nightmare. Couldn't have made it back to the states if we had wanted to - all flights overbooked.
We found a nice hotel in St. Laurence Gap and settled in for the storm. Thursday evening, winds started coming in, but everyone at the hotel seemed pretty calm and the mood was almose festive. We were lucky, and only had tropical storm conditions. Very windy throughout the night, but not too bad - waves kicked up pretty good for this part of the caribbean. Friday was the rain day, with bands of wind/rain alternating with calm. By Friday night rain had stopped, and Saturday morning was beautiful with lots of sun. Flew out of Barbados as planned on Saturday - airport was crazy again, but this time with people trying to get on Air Jamaica (to get home and secure things before the storm).
We were lucky, but it did make for a little more stress than we're used to on vacation.

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Jorge - you sound just like my husband! He thinks it would be fun to ride out a hurricane.

Jorge wrote:Very cool, thanks. I would love to ride one out without getting hurt.

Isabel in 2003 in NoVa was enough for me! 5 days and no electricity. We are campers, so I had the chow station setup in the garage. You should have seen the neighbors in the morning coffee line!

Cheers, RickG

I know who I want for a neighbor in case of a hurricane I can't go without my coffee in the morning...OMG!

mia wrote:I can't go without my coffee in the morning...OMG!

The coffee reaction was pretty funny. Most of the under-40 crowd had never seen a percolator before. "It's too strong, there's stuff on the bottom." Add water and stop yer whining.

Oh, and the beer never got warm!

Cheers, Rick

too funny! 5 days without electricity would have killed me. That's why we headed to Barbados...nicer hotels, most have generators... And the rum punch/beer never got warm there either!

During the last few hurricanes I have enjoyed looking out of my back yard windows watching the rain go sideways across the yard! It whips across the neighbors fence and slams into my bedroom wall (no windows) and then whips around the back of the house! It is amazing to watch. Sometimes we go out on the back patio to really get more of a feel for the storm! When the roof starts blowing off it is time to hit the attic though and the fun is over!

I'm glad all went well for you!

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Growing up in Miami as a kid, I got to ride out many hurricanes.
Donna in 1960 Cat 5
Betsy in 1965 Cat 3
Andrew in 1995 Cat 5 (I didn’t go through this storm, but a lot of my friends did).
Jeanne in 2004 Cat 3
Charley in 2004 Cat 4

I know the fear that these storms can give you. It’s no fun riding out these storms.
God bless the folks that are forced to ride out these storms.