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- - St.John (USVI) - -

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- - - 2003 Hurricane Season - - -

- And the rain continues
  • From: Benton <crabbys AT earthlink.net>
  • Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 15:52:48 -0330
The local feral chicken sang this morning for the first time since Sunday,
and for awhile, early this morning, it looked like the weather was going to
break.   However, the rain started up again around 8:30 am.  The chicken
showed up at our house around 1:30 this afternoon ---- he never does that --
and I could only guess that it might mean he was planning to roost early,
and that we might be in for another round of horrendous rain. The chicken
was right!  It has been pouring all afternoon.  I understand that we have
gotten more than 12 inches of rain this month -- and I don't believe that
includes yesterday and today.

I am watching the ghut AGAIN as the water run-off continues to grow and
grow.  My car stopped running yesterday, and our business computer is out as
well -- apparently all weather related. Don't want to complain, though.
Life is good in general -- just damp.  And we are all in the same boat.

There are minor land slides -- our neighbor has one under her house, but
most of the land/rock slides that we have heard about are along the
roadsides, and have not been too serious.  I believe most public schools
were shut down today on St. John and St. Thomas and non-emergency government
workers were told to stay home due to the dangerous road/weather conditions.
I don't know how much more water the soil can hold, but things are supposed
to improve tomorrow.  


- Rain Continues But So Does Hope!
  • From: Benton <crabbys AT earthlink.net>
  • Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 12:29:48 -0330
Just wanted to check in and let everyone know that the rain continues, off
and on, although the sun is trying to peak through for the first time since
Monday. It started with a bang Saturday night -- extremely heavy rain with
lightning (so we've been having very heavy rain for the past six days,
except for a little sun on Monday).  The winds picked up during the
overnight early Tuesday morning, blowing with gusts that I would estimate to
be around 40 miles per hour.  That still continues, off and on. The water
level in our cistern has gone up about five feet in the past few days, and
it is a 22,000 gallon cistern.  It is full for the first time in several
years.  The ghuts are running full blast during the heaviest of the rains.
The one closest to our house has branched off a few "streams" that we have
never seen before.  Hope it doesn't spread any wider.  We had to shovel away
loose rocks that have blocked the road drains from time to time.  There have
been minor rock slides along some of the roads, but nothing big enough to
make them impassable. Schools have been closed for the past few days in
spots on St. John and St. Thomas.  We were without power from about 2:30 pm
Tuesday through the overnight on St. John and the east end of St. Thomas,
then again on Wed. morning on all of St. John and St. Thomas for several
hours.  Since then, the lights are on, although I have heard of spot
outages.  Cable TV has also been out from time to time.  The weather is
certainly unusual, even for this time of year.  (A day or so of this heavy
rain at a time would be more usual.)  We've had to bail our dinghies out
several times over this rainy period because they were close to being
totally underwater.  There were several in Coral Bay on the eastern side of
St. John that looked to be sunk. To put the amount of water we've received
into perspective, we've been getting inches per day.  Hope we've reached the
end of it.    


- update
  • From: Elaine Estern <coconut AT islands.vi>
  • Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 08:47:02 -0400
September 13, 2003 8:30 AM
I am writing from the beach on west end of St. John, on Pillsbury Sound. This morning dawned sunny, with light winds out of the NW, cooler than the past days. Hurricane Isabel to this point has taken the same route as Fabian, with the same weather repeating itself. On the shore, there is a surge, but no waves inside Pillsbury Sound. I can see the large swells on the North Shore coming thru the smaller Cays, and know that the surfers are out. If we have the same conditions as Fabian, Isabel will take the wind with her, leaving us no breezes, hot and no rain. We should rejoice that it was only a near miss. E. Estern


- Now a Category 5!!!
  • From: "AT Your Service Travel Agency" <aystravel AT vipowernet.net>
  • Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 18:04:08 -0400
This lady is a MONSTER.  I pray that this hurricane stays in the ocean and touches no one.  It would be catastrophic.  I just heard on the news that it is up to 160mph and therefore now a Category 5.  We have been spared from this storm and now our prayers go out to any country that is now faced with the possibility of this monster coming ashore.
 
Myrna

- Hurricane Fabian
  • From: "Crabby's Watersports" <crabbys AT viaccess.net>
  • Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 15:21:06 -0400
It's Wednesday afternoon around 3PM in St.John. It has been a beautiful day here. I can tell you from the waterfront here in Coral Bay, that it's pretty calm,blue skies with a few white clouds. The only odd thing is, for the last day and a half,the winds are coming from the opposite of their normal direction and all the moored boats have swung around 180 degrees and are facing Northwest instead of Southeast. They almost never face that direction.The North shore is a little rougher than usual but no big deal and everyone is just going about their daily routines.Doug

- St.John USVI
  • From: "Rick Nelson" <crabbys AT viaccess.net>
  • Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2003 10:36:33 -0400
Hi Gert.It's a beautiful day here on St.John.They are having the annual
Labor Day parade right down the street from me here in Coral Bay and I can
here all the "HOT HOT HOT" music as I write this. Most everybody had been
making hurricane preparedness plans(e.g.boats moved to safe harbors, rental
villas all shuttered up,etc) but with the projected path of Fabian heading
north of us, I think everybody has relaxed and gone back in the holiday
mood. I hope the weather people are right but I'll feel better when I see
Fabian start his turn north and just leave us with some well needed rain.
Take care, Doug A.K.A.Crabby



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