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The Caribbean Hurricane PageUpdates from the Islands
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Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:38:59 -0400 From: Stephen Mann (SVMANN@compuserve.com) Subject: Web Page Hi All, George is but a passing memory for us here in Guadeloupe. For many throughout the Carib it has changed their lives. Please pray for the hundreds of families who have been touched by this storm. I took the opportunity to put up a Web Page for those of you who might be interested in what happened here. The pictures are big (bytes) to preserve the quality. It took me 5 min with a 33.6 modem to view the whole page. Take a look, and if it generates any questions, ask! We will be glad to answer. http://ourworld.Compuserve.Com/homepages/svmann In the service of Christ, Stephen Mann
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 20:49:05 -0400 From: Jennifer Conn (jconn2@po-box.mcgill.ca) Subject: Tourist in Gosier, Guadeloupe My daughter and her friend arrived at Pointe a Pitre Airport from Montreal, Canada, around 5 p.m. Saturday and proceeded to La Creole Beach/Les Residences Yucca in the south of Guadeloupe, I believe the district is called Gosier. (What timing for a well-earned vacation!!!) After a beautiful day at the beach on Sunday, the change in weather began to hit around dinner time that night. The hotel staff were wonderful and reassuring and took good care of their guests, plying them with good food and giving guidance and instructions before the storm hit. Other tourists from neighbouring hotels were brought there as it is a steel structure and very safe. After spending the night sleeping on their bathroom floor to be away from the windows and balcony, they woke up safe and sound. The only problem reported from my daughter by phone on Monday morning, Sept. 21, was that although there was electricity in the hotel, there was no water. (I am amazed that she was able to call out and that the lines were not down!) I have not communicated with her since then but I am sure they are fine. I thank the hotel staff for taking such good care of all their guests and others, for taking the time to confirm with me when I telephoned (a very worried mother back home in Montreal, Canada, on Sunday evening) that my daughter and her friend had indeed checked in there and were safe. I have been reading all the news about Georges on the Internet and was on "hurricane watch" all weekend even though I am so many miles away from it all. At one point we were getting the news here on T.V. and Internet that Georges was almost a 5 and that the eye was aiming straight for Guadelope. I am very glad to hear that it was not quite so bad and I believe it was a 3 when it hit you, the eye being more northward. I am relieved that there were no injuries as far as I have read, in Guadeloupe - I wish those in Puerto Rico had been so lucky. I hope it loses its force over D.R., Haiti and Cuba. I feel intimately involved with this Hurricane and will follow it until it dies out. Good luck to all and thank you Guadeloupe for protecting my daughter and her friend. One day I will go for a holiday in Guadeloupe, but not in hurricane season, I assure you.
[Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:09EDT] - Sebastien Enselme reporting from Guadeloupe:
I wanted to tell you all about a funny rumour spreading fast in
Guadeloupe these days :
The hurricane Georges got weaker before hitting the islands because the
US sent a bomb in the eye !
Anyway, Bomb or not, Georges has not afffected Guadeloupe much... The
northern part of "grande terre" was hit a little harder, with winds
gusting to 110 mph, but fortunately not much people live up here.
For the rest of Guadeloupe, we had 60 mph winds, maybe gusting to 75...
A few trees fell, and very few roof went off... I heard it wasn't as
quiet in St-Martin & St-Barth, but still a lot lot lot softer than Luis
3 years ago.
[Mon, 21 Sep 1998 20:20EDT] - Stephen Mann reporting from Guadeloupe:
Guadeloupe 9/21/98 7:30 pm
George is still with us. The skies have been grey all day with winds from
the south - some very strong at times. The clean-up has been in full force
all day. The main thing that people discovered when they went out of the
house was branches of trees. A few downed wires, a few destroyed roofs,no
damaged boats at the marina , and no fatalities.
70 to 80 % of the banana's were destroyed but the ones that are still
standing will be no good to sell so in reality it's closer to 100%. The
sugar cane crop was also damaged but I'm not sure how much.
The news called this storm "weak" compared to what was expected to come
Saturday night. It looks like in a couple of days you won't be able to
tell there was a hurricane.
I visited a friend who lives 100 ft from the ocean today. I fully expected
to find his house destroyed because of the storm surge. What I discovered
was that the reef, 500 ft out , broke the waves and when they got to shore
there was little force. Many of our eastern and southern beaches are
protected by reefs.
In southern Guadeloupe,
Stephen Mann
[Mon, 21 Sep 1998 11:13EDT] - Stephen Mann reporting from Guadeloupe:
Guadeloupe 10:20 am 9/21/98
Laptops are great. But if you only use the batteries for on the plane and
emergencies they don't last long. My "3 hr" battery lasted 5 min, c'est
la vie.
About 8:00 pm last night the winds started in ernest. Pierre and I stood
on my porch and watched a small tree fly by and decided it was time to go
in. The electricity went out about 9:30 pm. Then a piece of tin on our new
roof started to make noises, which kept us all on edge the whole night.
The kids all slept, but us adults just laid in bed and waited. Both of my
cats curled up on the bed next to us and barely moved.
About 12:00 pm the winds died down and the rains started. We never had
steady winds like are normal in a hurricane. It rained a lot but I would
be had pressed to guess an amount. As to the speed of the wind, some of
the gusts were above 80 mph I'm sure.
This morning about 5:00 am I slipped out the door in the rain to inspect
the damage. Lots of banana trees down, a couple of bigger trees across the
ravine, and pieces of debris everywhere.
The electricity came back on about 10:30 am and the first thing I did was
power up the laptop and write this message. Later today we are going to go
out and take pictures around the island. The reports we are hearing is
that the damage is not to bad up north which saw more of George. Some
roofs came off but not nearly like Hugo were some 90% of roofs came off in
some towns.
All in all we passed a ok night playing Uno.
In southern Guadeloupe
Stephen Mann
P.S. Like the weather man on "The Weather Channel " said: The prayers of
the people to move this storm are being heard.
[Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:22EDT] - Stephen Mann reporting from Guadeloupe:
George is here.
The winds have started to gust very strong here in the south. Things are
already starting to fly through the air. A neighbor said that the waves on
the ocean are higher then she has ever seen.
It is starting to rain a little but not very strong.
It's a scary sound when you hear the tin on your roof making noises. ( The
roof is new last year. )
This may be my last note until after the storm.
In the south of Guadeloupe
Stephen Mann
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 19:20EDT] - Stephane Colmez reporting from Guadeloupe:
19:18
i have close all the door .
i eard the wind becoming stronger
the power become poor
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 19:17EDT] - Sonny Bellevue reporting from Point-Noire on the west coast of Guadeloupe:
We are on the west guadeloupe coast, more exactly at Pointe-Noire, it's
19:14 local...
For the moment Georges do not give no signe to this part of the
island...
Some unfrequents fallinf rain with a little wind (about 40-50Km/h)...
Gonna watch how is the sea and tell you about in next message...
According to Guadeloupe weather center the center of Georges should hit
Guadeloupe at about 22:00 in the night...
Now the west coast is quit calm no important wind, no important rain
falls... we're about to have a little grill and spare that the situation
won't be too bad..;
Next message after a little round in the center town...
Bye... " KIMBE RAID "
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 19:03EDT] - Ludo reporting from Guadeloupe:
It's 19h00 now and the wind is coming now .No rain for the moment.The wind is
coming from NW. The swell is big.Everyone stay now in their house.We are
waiting...
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 18:35EDT] - Stephane Colmez reporting from Guadeloupe:
hello im still connected the night and georges are coming
some place have no power
i guess that we are very close to the battle
no rain but wind coming from the north
[Sat, 19 Sep 1998 18:30EDT] - Stephen Mann reporting from Guadeloupe:
Guadeloupe 6:00pm 9/20/98
The signs that the hurricane is close are really at hand. We noticed that
the directions of the clouds has changed from east to west now to north to
south. The ocean has really changed. We live a 1/4 mile and 500 ft above
the ocean. We have a great view. The waves are HUGE, no white caps, but
when they crash on the coast we can feel and hear it. It is getting dark
now, which is normal, so we will not be able to see the ocean after this.
In the near by town of Capesterre (which is at sea level) they have seen a
storm surge of 4 meters. Since the storm was slow in coming people started
to go see the waves and surge. A mans car was engulfed when he parker it
to close. The Police had to be called to send the people home. Since 10am
we have been ordered to stay inside but people are getting impatient. I
just heard a report the the storm surge will be 15 meters. I find this
hard to believe but with a storm like this it might be possible.
This is our first hurricane and even with all the preparations I still am
nervous. Our house is full with 6 kids and 4 adults. Our friends did not
trust their house so they came with us. The worst part that people are
tired of waiting.
After this report I am taking my computer down and switching to my lap top.
I hope the telephone and electric hold out for a while.
Keep on praying.
In southern Guadeloupe,
Stephen Mann
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 17:30EDT] - THEZENAS reporting from Guadeloupe:
this is nadine again. Now we can say that something beging to happens.
There's a lot of wind not really frecency but volient. There is nobobdy
outside. I don't andertand why, but i ear birds singing. It seems strange
because thoose birds must not be there not any more. The sun is dark. I
think that is my last communication before the hostility, after we will not
have electricity so i write back after.
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 17:18EDT] - Stephane Colmez reporting from Guadeloupe:
its 17h11 the wind is begining to blow here in guadeloupa
still connected ..
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 14:36EDT] - Ludo reporting from Guadeloupe:
Now, we are waiting for this "powerfull dangerous hurricane". During the
Morning, everyone finished to close their house. The weather is quiet
for the moment but we're waiting for strong, hard strong wind(here
people are remenbering "Hugo").The swell is already here. The NHC said
that the eye pass on the North over Guadeloupe and Meteo france said that
he could pass on the Guadeloupe .We're waiting for very hard conditions.
Good luck for everyone, in all islands.
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 12:41EDT] - THEZENAS reporting from Guadeloupe:
i think that it is beginning now. It's began to rain. we keep listenning.
[Sun, 20 Sep 1998 11:43EDT] - Stephen Mann reporting from southern Guadeloupe:
Guadeloupe 11:12 9-20-98
With all our northern windows closed tight we now wait for the storm. The
outside of the house is cleaned up, the car is on the porch, and we have as
much water saved as we can. The sky has turned from BLUE to Grey with
occasional rain. Sometimes you can hear high winds noises from up in the
mountains but we have not had any high wind as of yet, but it is coming.
Things are unusually quiet outside similar to the total eclipse we had here
in February. Our connection to the outside world is now only the phone
lines and the radio. We got together with our neighbors this morning,
prayed, and said our good bye's until tomorrow. I know it will be very
different outside tomorrow and I am not looking forward to the clean up.
As you read this be in prayer for all the peoples of the Caribbean whose
lives will be forever changed due to this storm.
[Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:01EDT] - Stephen Mann reporting from Guadeloupe:
It's hard to believe that it possible to have such a beautiful day and yet
a Cat 4 Hurricane is just on your door step. I live in the country,
extreme south of Basse Terre side of the island. We see Dominica to the
south with the Saints in between. All day as we prepared I kept thinking
about what would happen with the eye passing right in front of us. It was
not happy thoughts. We watched as late in the day the winds finally
changed and started coming out of the north west with the clouds moving
much faster. Then came the report the the cyclone had started to shift
north - we could breath a little easier - maybe.
Sleep tonight for tomorrow is the big day.
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