It Came, It Saw, It Conquered

I have always wanted to experience a hurricane. My summer in Georgia and my year in Queensland left me empty-handed. Well, I got my hurricane and I don’t think that I have a burning desire to go through another one. Cyclone Tomas tore through here over the last few days and it was not the cotton candy and picnic that I had envisioned. Mostly, it was loud. Really loud. We couldn’t sleep it was so loud, and I can sleep through anything. Seriously, I didn’t realize that moving air could make that much noise. Turns out it was good that we weren’t sleeping because as the winds and rain changed directions, all hands were needed periodically to move things around, block various windows, pull up floor sections, move the bed (it was raining on the bed at one point), etc.

And now to take stock: Our house did remarkably well. The roof stayed on entirely and the windows mostly did their job. The only problem was the wood slats on the walls that did their best but ultimately lost the battle with the horizontal rain. So, we took on some water. Outside is another story. My gardens are destroyed and no one around here will be eating a banana for a couple of months. Those things snapped like matchsticks. The cyclone wasn’t even here yet and the banana trees gave up. (Insert war-time French joke here.) I can’t even find the parts that made up my compost bin.

The solar hot water heater has also met its maker (me, but I did not provide it with bright white lights and comforting music).

I love the poetic justice that some of the main reasons for my not wanting to move are have been totally destroyed on the eve of that move. Literally, we are supposed to be out tomorrow, but the cyclone has bought us another week. I once told a friend when I thought that we might be getting the boot, “If they make me move from the garden, I will burn that mother down.” Luckily for all, I didn’t have to. Anyway, outside is still mostly mayhem with downed trees and debris everywhere.

The village was not so lucky. The evening before the cyclone hit, the high tide brought with it the storm surge leaving much of the village underwater. That was the first time that had happened in anyone’s memory although no one remembers a cyclone like this before either. Usually the flooding comes from the river, which did not happen. As long as the flooding comes from somewhere, is what I say. Anyway, the storm surge flooded all of the houses right on the shore and even a few further back.




Plenty of houses had roof damage, and one friend of mine had his roof totally ripped off. His house is ruined from the rain.





Luckily there was only 1 casualty, a horse (not a joke) was severely cut by flying roofing metal and later died. It is amazing that nothing more happened here, although we have not heard about the rest of the island or Fiji for that matter. Anyway, I am happy to have experienced it, happy that everyone I know is alive and well, and happy that it is over. Clean-up starts tomorrow.