The island (base especially) turns info a frenzied panic when it's realized that the storm is actually coming our way. There are so many things to do to prepare and it takes time (and patience!). We initiated our prep routine at home. Gassed up the vehicles, generator ready and gas cans filled, food and water stored, freezers packed and set to coldest setting, propane and charcoal stocked, everything outside either brought in or tied down, storm shutters closed and locked, extra water jugs filled for household use, electronics charged, all the laundry done, etc... Growing up in Florida we didn't have to prep for too many storms that I can remember, not as many as we have in the year we've been here. I suppose growing up in Florida also makes all this stuff less strange and unfamiliar. There are local Facebook groups for members of our community and the questions always increase ten fold when a storm is on the radar, and they usually make for some entertaining reading. So now that we are prepped and ready we wait.
Thursday afternoon the outer bands of the storm started passing through and the storm had shifted north, which was looking good for us. But Friday it moved back and stalled a bit, heading directly for us at the northern end of the island. We lost power Friday early afternoon and the winds were terrible. The eye of the storm was almost bigger than poor our little island! It ended up looking like this...
Our house was fine, built for this sort of thing, and we were just waiting out the storm and thankful for the generator to keep the fans blowing. We played indoors to pass the time. Even the cats got in on the fun. See the paw sticking through the slit in the side? He'd swat at the ball every time it went by.
By Saturday the storm had moved on leaving us with just some gusty winds and rain. We were still without power, had very weak water pressure and terrible cell reception due to downed towers I'm sure. It was hot but not unbearable in our house so far. Shelby had reported to work to check on his building and it took a little damage, but nothing major. He said most of the damage he could see from the drive to work was just downed trees and power lines. The houses here for the most part are meant to withstand the weather. The only exception are the small shacks and shanties that dot the island throughout the jungle, those sadly are not built for any kind of storm and their residents hopefully sought safety in a public shelter location. The news reported on several families left homeless after the storm because their "homes" were destroyed. The majority of houses here are solid concrete though and can take a pretty good beating.
Going on 40 something hours of no power, the boys are cooking breakfast.
By Sunday the storm had moved on and nice weather was upon us. Unfortunately we still did not have power. While I knew a generator was a necessity when we moved here, shelling out the cash for it still hurt when we bought it. Let me tell you, after a few days without power during this storm that generator has paid for itself. Worth every penny! Our neighbors, who we shared our generator power with would probably agree too! Sunday was HOT. Hotter than the inner circle of hell hot. I was worried about not having the water heater and weak water pressure, little did I realize that a cold trickle shower would never feel good. Hot water would have been a total waste! It got up to 84 degrees inside my house when we said screw it and went to Home Depot to buy another portable air conditioning unit for our bedroom. We had a used one we had purchased from someone secondhand, it was supposed to be a dehumidifier and air con. We realized right away the dehumidifier part didn't work as we had hoped, and now come to find out the AC part doesn't work so well either. When it hit 84 in the house I was DONE. Off to Home Depot we went and after 52 hours with no power or air con they could have asked me for a kidney and my first born and I probably would have handed them over without batting an eye. We came home and got to work hooking up the unit to start cooling off our bedroom to sleep that night. Magically, just as Shelby was about to finish setting up the AC, about 10:30 PM on Sunday, our power came back on. You could hear the shouts of joy up and down the street. We were one of the lucky few in our neighborhood who got out power back that night. The two perimeter roads were restored, and must be on a different grid, because the rest (and majority) of the neighborhood was on brown out power. Those poor folks wouldn't get their power fully restored for another day and a half! Yes, we were very blessed that night!
The excitement from the storm had finally died down and we had made it! The only casualty of this storm was my beloved Cuisinart coffee pot. I guess it didn't like generator power. Or it was just time to die, it was several years old after all. It ran like a champ on generator power keeping my coffee fix in check, but when the power came back on and we plugged it back into the wall, lifeless. I guess we fared pretty well, but I'm in no hurry to do this again! Typhoon Dolphin (dumbest name for a typhoon ever, by the way. Who fears cute, curious dolphins??) was only a category 2 typhoon, but seeing what it did to the island I do not want to be around for anything stronger than that. My house would be fine, but the amount of time it would take the island to restore power, water and roads after a super typhoon, no good! Let's hope those forecasters are wrong about this season!
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