Just a quick update on how we are weathering the storm. We are seeing intermittent heavy rains and lots of wind. The winds have been gusting up to 45 mph, and the rain is going sideways. This is by far worse than Tropical Storm Noel back in October. The latest update (about an hour prior to this posting) the winds had gone to a maximum of 60+ mph and the center is located only about 30 miles to the south of us (the storm reaches over 200 miles wide) and we are in the path of the strongest part of the storm. They are expecting up to 10 inches of rain in the next 24 hours (good thing we are on the second floor), and the storm should be leaving Hispaniola by then.
As I write this our internet connection is down so I’m composing an email that I hope will go up some time tonight. We have been up and down with electric all night (remember we have a generator), and it looks like the whole town is mostly without power.
We just took a walk down to the beach to check things out and were met along the way with huge palm leaves down and a coconut (glad we weren’t around when they fell). It seemed pretty windy here at the apartment, but as we neared the beach it was HOWLING!! And I do mean HOWLING!!! It was blowing so hard that we couldn’t walk more than about 20 steps before we had to turn around and seek shelter. The blowing sand and driving rain (and it wasn’t raining hard at all) were stinging our exposed skin. The waves are HUGE!! We watched huge waves crash ashore one after another. We think the waves are about 25 + feet crashing on the beach. Needless to say, there will be some damage from this storm.
We are all safe and dry in our apartment. We have the back door & window cracked and a window in the front cracked and the wind is cranking through. As a matter of fact, I tried to shut the bathroom door and it would not stay shut. Matt had to hold it shut with both hands in order for it to stay shut against the wind. We’ve had to move all the furniture off the balcony inside (Yes, Matt got really wet) because it was blowing around and we were afraid it would become flying shrapnel.
Matt did manage to go kiting this afternoon. The water wasn’t all that crowded, as only about 5 folks opted to sail. He used Angela’s small kite (8m), and did one huge jump (his biggest ever) followed by a crash (his biggest ever), and then crashing the kite in the water (his biggest ever) followed by Angela digging it out of the surf with the howling winds. It was an on-shore breeze, so he was quickly back on the land.
We’ll keep you updated as power and internet allow!!
Take Care,
Angela & Matt
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