Thanks for the concern and well wishes. It's been a rough week!
We had house damage with the first hurricane, Fay, which hit a week ago on Sunday morning. It was billed a tropical storm and not much attention was paid to it. Unfortunately, it was a little more and hit in such a way that it wreaked a fair bit of damage. Five houses on every side of us lost substantial parts of their roofs and other such damage. We were lucky in the respect, though we lost part of a boundary wall.
Meanwhile, full hurricane Gonzalo continued to build up to a Category 4 (out of bloody 5!) Hurricane to the south of us. Hatches were well and truly battened down. Gonzalo struck on Friday afternoon. I haven't been through a hurricane like that since I was a kid, where the atmosphere was electric and there were no responsibilities on my shoulders! Tropical storm conditions began on the Friday afternoon, lasting 27 hours in all. Gonzalo marched right over us. Not to the east, or west, but right over us! The house shook for three hours until the "eye" passed. In Bermuda parlance, it was "a bit brisk!" During the eye, which lasted about an hour, the night was still with sea air. Then the second half! Not sure if Scott Parker gave the half-time team talk, but things went to a whole other level as wind directions reversed and Gonzalo proceeded north. For us, the back end of the storm, a further four hours, hit very hard. The pressure in our house was immense, with every window and door seemingly shaking in different directions. By 2am, things had calmed down to moderate (by hurricane standards) winds and we were able to rest.
Two things seemed to work in the island's favour. Firstly, Fay cleaned house and knocked down anything that was a bit "loose", whether hedges, trees, branches, rocks, walls, windows or roofs. And secondly, Gonzolo passed right over us. The strongest winds are in the Eye Wall, or the sphere around the very centre. In the centre of the hurricane, there is no wind. If the storm had been to the east or west, even a few degrees, we would have endured sustained eye wall winds that would have created much more deadly damage. Instead, we had a bit of respite and the strongest winds were mitigated just enough by this.
No major injuries reported during storm, so assume LookOut and family are safe. I will try to contact him. Some are still without power and some houses lost roofs etc. A frightening experience, especially on the back of a direct hit from a tropical storm the previous weekend. A category 3 hurricane with sustained winds in excess of 115 mph is no fun, the power is incredible - I boarded up every window that doesn't have a shutter on it and just hoped for the best. Our house was shaking - we endured hurricane force winds (sustained winds of +70mph) for close to 8 hours. Fortunately we received some respite during the eye, which was 40 minutes of instant total calm right in the middle of the storm - a surreal experience. Then all hell breaks loose again as the eye wall moves on over you.
Yep, I was chicken and shipped me and my other half and daughter off island. We were on the last flight out of Bermuda Thursday night before they shut the airport.
Comments
Edit; Now waiting for some smart a*se to flag me. :-0
Thanks for the concern and well wishes. It's been a rough week!
We had house damage with the first hurricane, Fay, which hit a week ago on Sunday morning. It was billed a tropical storm and not much attention was paid to it. Unfortunately, it was a little more and hit in such a way that it wreaked a fair bit of damage. Five houses on every side of us lost substantial parts of their roofs and other such damage. We were lucky in the respect, though we lost part of a boundary wall.
Meanwhile, full hurricane Gonzalo continued to build up to a Category 4 (out of bloody 5!) Hurricane to the south of us. Hatches were well and truly battened down. Gonzalo struck on Friday afternoon. I haven't been through a hurricane like that since I was a kid, where the atmosphere was electric and there were no responsibilities on my shoulders! Tropical storm conditions began on the Friday afternoon, lasting 27 hours in all. Gonzalo marched right over us. Not to the east, or west, but right over us! The house shook for three hours until the "eye" passed. In Bermuda parlance, it was "a bit brisk!" During the eye, which lasted about an hour, the night was still with sea air. Then the second half! Not sure if Scott Parker gave the half-time team talk, but things went to a whole other level as wind directions reversed and Gonzalo proceeded north. For us, the back end of the storm, a further four hours, hit very hard. The pressure in our house was immense, with every window and door seemingly shaking in different directions. By 2am, things had calmed down to moderate (by hurricane standards) winds and we were able to rest.
Two things seemed to work in the island's favour. Firstly, Fay cleaned house and knocked down anything that was a bit "loose", whether hedges, trees, branches, rocks, walls, windows or roofs. And secondly, Gonzolo passed right over us. The strongest winds are in the Eye Wall, or the sphere around the very centre. In the centre of the hurricane, there is no wind. If the storm had been to the east or west, even a few degrees, we would have endured sustained eye wall winds that would have created much more deadly damage. Instead, we had a bit of respite and the strongest winds were mitigated just enough by this.
Thankfully, we live to fight another day.
A
I know CA was off island for storm.
Glad your ok.
Just saw LoOKOut's post. Glad all is well!
I was at Bournemouth Saturday - not sure what was worse! http://chicagoaddick.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/afc-bournemouth-1-charlton-athletic-0/
My blog ramblings on Hurricane Gonzalo are here if you are interested:
http://chicagoaddick.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/hurricane-gonzalo/
http://chicagoaddick.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/hurricane-gonzalo-update/
http://chicagoaddick.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/bruised-but-not-knocked-out/