Cyclone

Cyclone Wilma from a seat on my porch

      Our first warning of the cyclone came late in the day last Wednesday.  They said it would hit Friday.  I thought these things got far more warning than that?  Not here.  It was called P08 until Friday when it got the name Wilma.  We all left work a bit early Friday to get home; since I had nothing to do to prep for it, I was OK.  In fact, it didn't hit until Saturday evening, having taken a detour north, then south again, so it came down from the north side.  Small difference, since the cyclone was preceded by almost continuous rain Friday into Saturday when it did hit around dinnertime.  It was a Category 1 maximum, winds 50 - 75 mph they say.  My home is somewhat sheltered, it's low, there are homes around it, and so didn't get any damage.  Here's a video of the cyclone, taken from my porch:

The power went out early Saturday evening, about 8 pm.  It remained out until Sunday afternoon.  What to do when there is no light, no electricity, and it's windy and rainy everywhere?  Go to bed!  I slept through a lot of it, though hardly very deep, a lot of drowsing.  There isn't thunder or lightning, at least not here on this occasion, just rain and wind.  The wind was loud enough.

     Since my porch wraps around the house, I was able to sit outside and read (when I had light enough) and simply observe.  I did go down to the shore and take some videos of the water.  Here is one, shortly before the cyclone hit.  The water is quite low, noticeably lower than normal low tide.  I'd guess that the low pressure right under the cyclone drew the water up there, instead of leaving it here:

     Sunday morning there was a pause, no wind, rain ceased.  It wasn't the eye exactly, since it wasn't sunny up above, but probably something like that.  I went to the shore and took another video; here the water is higher than usual high tide and the blowholes were active; so I guess we were in the eye or quite close to it:

Here are two shorts of the blowholes, combined into  one:

     Then, after an hour or so, the wind whipped up from the exact other direction, and stayed there several hours more.  Here's a video of that; you may notice the trees blowing the other way:

I did also take a few stills, next day, though they don't show things too well:

Downed breadfruit tree

Super low tide, near my home in Leone, just before cyclone hit.

Downed row of banana plants near my home

     Somehow in mid-afternoon the electricity came on and I was able to see (it was quite dark even in daytime; reading was tough unless I sat outside, which I could do on the other side of the porch).  I did Skype home to Cyndi and also Lisa.  Things were looking up! There was even a decent sunset through the clouds, and the rain stopped in the evening.  Here it is:

Cyclone sunset

     Alas, false hope.  It rained most of the night, hard, really hard.  The field outside my home was flooded, with water everywhere.  This is Monday morning, after more than 2 days of cyclone and rain:

Soggy front yard.  Everything is soaked!

     Being sick of looking at the same 4 walls, and it being Monday, I drove to work through the rain.  Bad idea.  Court was canceled (but not until I had arrived).  Worse, my car died right in the middle of the road behind the EOB.  Dead.  Nothing worked.  I had driven through umpteen huge puddles on the way, and seem to have thoroughly soaked the Batmobile's engine.  Worser, as soon as it died, the skies REALLY opened up.  It poured, and poured, and there I was stuck out in the road, blocking traffic.  Via cell phone I called the office and in a few minutes two angels appeared through the misty torrents.  They turned out to be Kelly and Steph, who helped me push my car under a tree out of the road where I left it (Worst - it is there now) so I could run up to the office.  Here's me, in the office, photo courtesy of Steph:

Ready for Court?  Not night out the window - just dark at 9:00 a.m.

Ever see a more pitiful, bedraggled specimen?  Of course, it was then that court got canceled and everyone ordered home.  It was still pouring rain.  I've never seen such rain, how can that much water float in the air above our heads?  It defies logic.  My colleagues drove me home; here are a few photos from along the way:

Debris, front of EOB where I work

Government building near EOB, totaled

Flooded road, jail (TCF) on left, road goes to juvenile jail

Water streams running past bus stop

Sheets of water running down entry to shopping center

     Per the news, there are trees down everywhere, no deaths thank goodness, Starkist closed when a building blew down, and the (unused now) cable up to Mt. Alava broke.  It fell into the harbor, on top of a ferry boat.  It sits on the main highway, and cars have to drive over it.  I heard too that it landed on another Starkist Building and damaged that too.  I wonder what they will do about that?  Poor Charlie, never gets respect.

     We are now under a "monsoon warning" whatever that means.  It's still raining, my car is kaput, and I'm still looking at my same 4 walls.  It must be 99.9% humidity - the air is the same temperature as the ocean (about 80), so if the humidity were .1% more we may as well be in the ocean.  What is this paradise thing I've heard talk about?  I've never felt so completely, totally inundated, soaking wet soggy ever or anywhere.

UPDATE Tuesday 1/25/11:  It stopped raining long enough today for a orange-y brightish spot to appear behind some thin clouds.  Hope!  But no, Tuesday night it's raining again, hard as ever.  But my car is alive again.  For now. Everything, absolutely everything is saturated and then some. Another couple days like this and I may as well be Charlie the Tuna.  Feels like I'm growing fins.