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- - - 2004 Hurricane Season - - -

- Ivan
  • From: photos AT hpphoto.com
  • Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:14:32 -0700 (PDT)
Title: hpphoto.com: invitation from Halligan
a surprise from Halligan
Halligan
has just invited you to see a photo
album at hpphoto.com
for you stamp
Some photos hours before it was the closest to Aruba. This is the east coast (Baby Beach, just half a mile east to the refinery of Valero. The pictures of my home are intended for family viewers who know the house. Greetings, Halligan
You can view the album at:
http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=hally&password=18742116
This service is 100% FREE :) Have a good day and have fun!
If you are unable to see the album sent by clicking on the link above, then copy and paste the full URL below into your browser:
http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=hally&password=18742116
the free & easy way to share photos!
Send FREE albums and cards to friends & family
http://www.hpphoto.com

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- Some photos just before Ivan's passage
  • From: photos AT hpphoto.com
  • Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:11:10 -0700 (PDT)
Title: hpphoto.com: invitation from Halligan
a surprise from Halligan
Halligan
has just invited you to see a photo
album at hpphoto.com
for you stamp
These are some photos taken at the east coast side of the island (Aruba). The pictures of my home are intended for my family. Greetings Halligan
You can view the album at:
http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=hally&password=67500236
This service is 100% FREE :) Have a good day and have fun!
If you are unable to see the album sent by clicking on the link above, then copy and paste the full URL below into your browser:
http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=hally&password=67500236
the free & easy way to share photos!
Send FREE albums and cards to friends & family
http://www.hpphoto.com

.....................................................................................
HP respects your privacy. For more information regarding our policy and/or to update your contact permission, please visit http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/privacy.html or mail us at HP Privacy Mailbox, 20555 SH 249, MS 040307, Houston, TX 77070.

- Tail of Ivan
  • From: Lizayra Polak <jclizayrapres2004 AT yahoo.com>
  • Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 07:53:52 -0700 (PDT)
First of all, I could not sent my report earlier due to the fact that lightning hit my computer so I am without computer at this moment. We got a big surprise thursday evening. At around 12.00 p.m. it starting raining with some heavy thunder and lightning. It got everybody by surprise, it was the tail of IVAN. At 12.30 I had no electricity at my home, so I couldn't report. The weatherreport say that we had a record of water a total of 119.3 milimeter. Many homes have received heavy damaged especially the area of Madiki, where people where left homeless.
 
As I say it all started thursday evening/morning at 12.30 heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning. Thank God we had a radio at home that works with a battery. But the radio was really quit, cause nobody could get out of their homes. Lighting even struk in my garden. Finally at 4.00 a.m. one radio started transmitting. God, it was panic people calling from everywhere that their house were filling up with water. Women crying on the phone asking for help cuase they could not get out of their house. In the morning the roads where left destroyed, and almost nobody could get on the road, cuase there was water everywhere. The goverment and other authorities helped especially the places that were flodded. When I say flodded I really mean flodded, cars that were completly under water and houses fill up to 2 metres of water. There was a women who was caught up in a stream end ended up under a bridge, she came out alright. Several homes are lost and several families are left without nothing. At this moment the Red Cross functions as a shelter for the homeless ones. I have to say the Tail of IVAN has left a big wound in all our hearts. Today the Red Cross it is till seeking for help...so far my report


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- pictures of aruba
  • From: "Federico Fingal" <federico AT lalo.com>
  • Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 06:45:10 -0400
I am an Arubian residing on Curacao, and have been following the happenings
in Aruba with my family over there, and it is very sad to see some of the
pictures of Aruba right now. The Aruban newspaper Diario posted some
pictures that can be seen at
http://www.diarioaruba.com/diabierna/noticia/news1.html and although the
text is in papiamento the pictures are worth a thousand words in any
language.

However they can never be compared to those of Grenada and what will become
of Jamaica.

Federico Fingal

St. Martinus University School of Medicine
Curacao Neth. Antilles
http://www.martinus.edu


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- Ivan's terrible tail.
  • From: Halligan Riley <hallyr AT hotmail.com>
  • Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 17:30:26 -0400

Friday, September 10 2004, 17:28 PM -5.00 GMT

Hi Gert,

Here is the latest on Aruba

Yesterday when I wrote you those lines, we in Aruba really did not expect
what was coming towards us in the later hours. Well it poured cats and
dogs with lots of thunder and lightening. Ivan "the terrible" ^Ñs tail
really caused mayor flooding over the entire island. Many households lost
everything inside their homes. Most of the water dams went over their
borders and because of very poor natural waterways it flooded large areas
in their surroundings. I know a good friend of mine who literally saw her
refrigerator swept away by the water into the "rooi" (tiny river) running
just in the back of their yard.

This morning I listened to Magic FM 96.5 interviewing a couple where
lightening had struck their two story home. It cut right through the
concrete ring beam in the top floor to then go through the concrete floor
between the two floors. They were describing an opening of about 2.5 feet
in diameter. The lady was home with her baby. Luckily this projectile
like lightening bolt did strike a couple of yards farther away from where
the mother and baby were. Thus it remained at only great material damage.

Well my prayers and that of my fellow Arubians goes out to all Jamaicans,
for I^Òm following (animated) Ivan on my PC and what I see is very
revolting.

Anyway we will be in touch.

Regards,

Halligan.



- After Ivan
  • From: John Hassell <jmhassell AT setarnet.aw>
  • Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:42:41 -0400
Thank you all for responding with love and concern for our island.
I will try to create this report as compact and as accurate as possible

When I posted the first info we were literally in the dark as to what was
about to happen. But thanks to internet and TV we kept ourselves informed.
Then the government activated the calamity response team and things started
to happen and fast.
The government closed all the schools and sent home all the government
employees who were not included in the calamity response team. They also
asked the private sector to cooperate and send there people home to start
there preparation

Ivan started its passage of Aruba at about 11:00pm in the evening and about
03:00 the eye of hurricane was about 160 miles north of the island.
As far away as that was we still got tropical storm winds and a lot of rain.
The worst thing that really happened to us was the beach erosion. It is
terrible even though people tell us that it will be back.

We had a lot of flooding in Oranjestad because the drain system is not made
to accommodate so much water.
We had some people who had to be evacuated from there homes but that was
all.
There is no structural damage that can be noted, no physical damage to no
one.
The day after the hurricane they had to keep the schools closed because of
the flooding.

The storm is now very far away but as I'm posting this message it is raining
and thundering, so we still have a lot of rain.

As far as I know no Hotel had any damage and the tourist here on the island
was met with one day without sunshine.
As I'm writing this post my mind is going out to the people of Jamaica,
because Ivan the terrible has taken aim on them and he does not seems to
want to turn away.

Before I closed I have a question for all out there who have experience with
hurricanes.
Do you tell the people where the shelters are  after the hurricane of before
the hurricane. That was a big discussion here because the government told
everyone that there are so much shelters but they will be told to the people
after the storm gas passed. Doesn't make no sense to me

Thanks again for all your concerns

John



- Ivan
  • From: "nati" <natielinedelafuente AT hotmail.com>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 19:00:52 -0400
Hi,
 
Yesterday Ivan went by Aruba. During the day it was inmensily hot and even at night there was no breeze whatsoever which is very unsuall for Aruba as we heavy a steady northeast wind. It was an eary quieteness during nightfall.
 
Approximately at 11 oclock it started raining on and off, a light drizzle with the breeze picking up a little.
 
At about 3 in the morning it started raining very hard and a lot of rain came down which flooded everything in the yard. There was more wind and now and than a harder wind, but on the island I guess we are usually used to harder winds than that. Remarcably there was no thunder or lighting which I kinda anticipated that there would be.
 
Aproximately 1 hours later it started raining again just as before. By morning everything was over.
 
We were very lucky and I hope I never have to experience the real thing. If one good thing came out of this I would think that we had a drill and will be better prepared if it would ever happen again. I regret that everything has been blown so out of proportion creating panic situations on the island, but who can anticipated what will really happen till its over.
 
 
Regards,
 
Natascha

- [VIRUS-NOTE] Ivan, lots of rain, little wind
  • From: Halligan Riley <hallyr AT hotmail.com>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 03:24:13 -0400
Hi Gert,
It is now 03:17 AM local time in Aruba. A while ago it started to pour
heavily in Balashi. Although most of the homes were boarded down, there
is little or no wind at all. This probaly means that Ivan is going past
Aruba further away than was expected. I guess that we're blessed this
time, because I just read in your last release that Ivan has been
upgraded to a category 5 hurricane. Well it is raining heavy now but what
I really don't understand NO WIND at all.
I'm following this one closely and my prayers go out to the people of
Jamaica.
 
Regards,
 
Halligan Riley


- Update
  • From: Lizayra Polak <jclizayrapres2004 AT yahoo.com>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 08:22:16 -0700 (PDT)
On request here is an update.
It has rained very heavly here, but not for long periods. However the water has caused some damages on a lot of homes. According to the report of our firedepartment, there first phonecall came in when a roof of a house was blown away. Many homes have recieved some serious damage due to the water. Some people were voluntray evacuated and seeked shelter at the red cross. Amazing is that we have kept our electricity during the whole night and only in some places this felt out. Tiil now there are no death reports, thank God. We feel very lucky as it is mostly water damaged we received. The governemnt requested everyone to stay home today, cause the roads are not safe yet. It is still raining partialy. I will post an updated later in the afternoon


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- Rain
  • From: Lizayra Polak <jclizayrapres2004 AT yahoo.com>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 08:21:09 -0700 (PDT)
The rain has just started (2.30 a.m.). It is raining very hard at this moment. The last newsconference with the government took place at 7.00 p.m. They expect that everything will get back to normal during the day. However knowing the roads of Aruba, I doubt anyone can get to their jobs.


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- Update
  • From: "RR Britten" <mushroomfreak AT hotmail.com>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 23:45:35 -0400
hi how are you mu name is paul. it just started to rain here in aruba it's 23.40 now. the roads are filling with water  there are stil now hard winds it's harder then noemely bud not extreme yet, i hope it won't go extreme. we do have hi water by the coasts some parts are under water spacialy in oost direction the west is all so gething bad, the police wants the peoples to evecuate there in .we have high waves in the see
ok thank you bye

- huricane warning for aruba
  • From: Lizayra Polak <jclizayrapres2004 AT yahoo.com>
  • Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 16:35:06 -0700 (PDT)
Felllow Caribbeans,
 
As far as I can also remember it has been a while since we had a huricane here on this island. At this moment it is 7.30 p.m. it is still very quite. Although we have very high waves which already destroyed some of our beaches. Some hotels have evacuated their guests. The government is doing all they can to keep the people calm. A little water that has fallen has already flodded some areas. And all persons are requested to please stay home. This will also be my first hurricane. I wish my collegue island a lot of strenght. And I will keep you all updated as the hurricane closes. They expected time of hurricane Ivan is 3.00 a.m.
 
God watch over us


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- Aruba
  • From: John Hassell <jmhassell AT setarnet.aw>
  • Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 13:02:17 -0400
Hello there,

My name is John and I live on the island of Aruba and for the first time
that I can remember we are under a Hurrican watch.
I understand from the older people on the isalnd that the last hurrican past
here was in 1955.

Everyone here is very nervous as for more that 90% of the people, including
myself, this will be the first time.
But true the wonders fo television, satelite and internet, we have lived
with the other islands and the U.S. as to what kind of devastation these
systems can bring with them.

I will be looking forward to communicate with you

Thank

John


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