Dorian

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by Jordan-Flomad

I almost thought it was some kind of magical place where folks worked together for the good of humanity. I am super naive I guess.

Nope and yes you are. It's a real bummer isn't it. That problem is going to take longer to fix than the damage in the Bahamas.

[GordMay]

Halifax, Nova Scotia:

[Exile]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/07/us/ba...ida/index.html

[Mike OReilly]

Sitting in Lewisporte on the NE side of Newfoundland. The eye has shifted north of us, but we’re still getting a good blow here in this protected marina.

[Cthoops]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Sitting in Lewisporte on the NE side of Newfoundland. The eye has shifted north of us, but we’re still getting a good blow here in this protected marina.

I’m glad you’ve checked in, Mike. Mr. cthoops and I were wondering how you two were doing.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Cthoops

I’m glad you’ve checked in, Mike. Mr. cthoops and I were wondering how you two were doing.

Thanks (to you and “Mr.”) . It’s blowin' a good 50 knots at times, but we’re in a good spot for seas, and the docks seem stout. As long as our lines and fenders hold we should be OK. Got another 24 hours of this, but so far so good.

We got lucky with the eye shifting north of us. Looks like Halifax area got hit hard though, and I’m still waiting to hear about the western side of Newfoundland — where we just left.

[chris mac]

Glad you are safe(ish) Mike. Hang in there, it should be improving soon

[JPA Cate]

Good on ya for being tucked up nice and safe. Most heavy weather we have had goes away within 3 days. Tiring, though.

Ann

[Mike OReilly]

Thanks folks. We had our first near-casualty here in the marina when a headsail partially unfurled. Bunch of us got there in time to get it wrapped up again. Close though…

I just readjusted a few lines and managed the beginnings of some chafe in one spot. Otherwise fine.

Yeah… this will be a three-day event Ann. Sure going to sleep well on day four .

[newlazydays]

This is a letter I sent to friends when I got back to Florida from Green Turtle Cay.


Things have been somewhat hectic the last few days. A major hurricane is supposed to pass over the Abacos in a couple of days so I flew from Fort Lauderdale to Marsh Harbour. Just before leaving the States I got an urgent message from some French friends that their starter motor on their boat Kisskadee had died and could I bring a new one over to the Bahamas? Their engine is so old that they no longer make a starter motor for that particular engine so a new one had to be made up especially…….which meant that I was down to the wire waiting for the thing to be delivered before my flight left.

Long story short. The damned thing didn’t fit in the engine compartment so they had to chop a bit out to get it in. Engine now running but it is too late to run for Miami so they are stuck here till after the hurricane.

I met Simon in Marsh Harbour and we towed the Kisskadee to Treasure Cay where they can weather the storm, then we came on to Green Turtle Cay where my boat has been for the last two months. Miraculously everything seems to be working on the boat and today we have been sorting out extra lines and untangling chain etc. Simon spent about two hours in the water diving around the ground tackle and having to scare away a nurse shark!

It is very hot after England and this afternoon I am running the generator and giving the AC a run. This evening Simon from Observation is coming over to eat on my boat as he has fed me for the last two days. He also tells me that there is a big fat snapper under the boat so I might try fishing later.

My phone is not on the local server yet as the Bahamas Telephone people are all at home getting ready for the storm. I guess that problem will have to wait.

As of this moment……..4.30 Friday we are expecting a direct hit with 130 mph winds on Sunday. The problem is the damned thing has slowed right down in it forward momentum so we could be in it for whole day! We hope the center moves a little to the north so we don’t go through the eye.

Addition 8 days later after the storm.

So we spent Saturday and Sunday making last minute preparations for the coming wind storm. At that time it was now classed as a cat 5 hurricane and we were offered shelter in a concrete basement belonging to Donny Sawyer, a guy I have known for some years and the owner of Donny’s Rentals, a small business with a dock and rental boats for hire. The main storm winds were projected to arrive about 1.30 in the afternoon of Sunday 1st September, but by 10.30 in the morning the winds were nearing 50 mph, so I and Simon took his dinghy ashore and made our way to the refuge under Donny’s house.

By 12 the winds were really getting up and soon after we entered the eye wall. Because of our position in relation to the eye, we actually were stuck in the thing for about 4 hours, with huge blasts of wind and heavy torrential rainfall. Later we were told that one gust reached 220mph, but most of it was well over 150mph. Visibility was down to about 50 yards so we couldn’t see our boats out of the moorings in the bay.

After about 30 minutes of the big winds the house above the basement gave way and great chunks of house went flying through the air. This brought on a major problem as we now had just a wooden floor and a carpet above us to protect against the rain………which it didn’t. So for the next 48 hours we lived under a shower of water drops and slept as best we could on a very wet floor that had to be cleared every two hours or so.

The noise was fantastic as great gusts tore at the trees and what remained of the house. Every tree in sight was soon denuded of leaves and most of them were knocked to the ground. Every now and again tornadoes would suck debris up into the air or slam bits and pieces against our shelter.

By five the eye wall had moved on and Justin (Donny’s son) and I went for a walk. This was totally crazy as it was still blowing a full cat one hurricane, but after what we had been through it seemed like a stiff breeze. Simon’s boat was now resting about 15 feet above sea level on top of a raft of broken trees. Canted at 45 degrees the boat was a sorry sight, especially as the main mast had broken about twenty feet from the deck.

My boat had dragged backwards onto the public dock and beaten itself to death against the dock and was now sunk. The rigging had held and so had the lines to the mooring block, but the giant wind had been just too much for the block and the whole thing had been dragged across the harbour.

The Sunday night saw the wind move round to the SE and blow at about 50mph with heavy rain. Our shelter became a wet-hell hole and we had to sweep the place out every two hours or so. No one slept that much and the Monday morning brought no relief. By now the hurricane was over Grand Bahama and basically stationary. There it sat for 24 hours and then reluctantly moved off to the north, narrowly missing the Florida coast. Tuesday was not that much better. Lots of wind and rain. I walked into New Plymouth. Nearly everything was smashed up but strangely a house with the date 1866 over the doorway was in pretty good shape. I guess they knew how to build houses in those days.

Wednesday.

I spent a number of hours helping clear up the mess in the demolished house. Basically scraping stuff into a trailer and dumping it at the local tip. Simon and I built a ramp so that we could get onto his boat and get some food etc and other bits and pieces to make our situation a bit better. The wind still blew hard with intermittent showers so everything remained very damp.

Thursday.

Donny told us that he wanted to get off the island on Saturday and could we move out of the basement so he could secure his tools etc in the only bit of he house he could lock up. He had one surviving dinghy and ran us over to Treasure Cay Ferry Dock, as the ferries were all lost except one. From there a friendly local took us to the Treasure Cay Airport. There were perhaps 600 people trying to get flights out but the only planes coming in were small private planes from Florida, loaded with relief supplies. At about 10 am a large Bahamas Air plane landed with troops and police and began taking women and children aboard to fly to Nassau. There was no official organization on the airfield or traffic control, but somehow the whole thing worked and locals ferried the supplies away in battered vehicles to a central point.

Simon and I spent the day talking to the pilots of the small planes going back to Florida, with out much luck, and as the evening drew in we were resigned to sleeping on the tarmac. There was plenty to live on and we managed to scrounge a chair, a small mattress and some sort of aircraft cover that would make life a bit more comfortable. Just before the sun went down another small plane came in and we managed to get aboard in the cargo hold.

Arrived at West Palm Beach Jet Center and cleared in as “evacuuees”. Got a taxi to Simon’s friends house and arrived there about 9.30pm. Showers, air conditioning at last. I had escaped Hurricane Dorian with only a small cut on my left foot!

[JPA Cate]

Sorry about your boat, newlazydays.

Thank you for telling us your fascinating story, a great relief you and your friends had no injuries.

Ann

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Today's misfortune is tomorrows adventure.

[GordMay]

newlazydays:
Thanks for sharing your awful, yet somewhat uplifting story of surviving Dorian and it’s immediate aftermath.
Your composure and equanimity are truly inspiring.
So glad you survived with so little personal injury. Saddened by your, and everyone’s, loss.
.

[Exile]

Gord put it better than I could.

Hang on Mike!

[jmh2002]

Update from José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen team:

https://wck.org/news/hurricane-dorian-update

Originally Posted by World Central Kitchen

WCK was one of the first organizations on the ground in Abaco and is the only one providing fresh meals. We are currently delivering to the makeshift shelters in the government center and schools, a hospital, clinics, churches and more. Across the Northern Bahamas, the team is now delivering 20,000 meals per day and aims to hit 30,000 per day as we scale up the operation.

[newlazydays]

WCK (World Central Kitchen) was the first to bring cooked food to Green Turtle Cay. On the Wednesday a large helicopter landed not far from Donny's house and Donny went to see what was going on. He came back with a large tray of cooked chicken and rice. I think they probably fed the whole of Green Turtle that day.


Only two boats survived in Black Sound as far as I know. A trawler that was on a custom made mooring block and a sail boat on the docks at Leeward Yacht Club. All other boats are basically wrecked. Either sunk, upside down or driven onto the land.


I heard (no confirmation as yet) that all the Moorings boats at Leisure Lee were wrecked.


Treasure Cay also badly damaged. Friends taking shelter in one of the condos there had to shelter in the bathroom as the wind blew out the main windows.


I spoke to Bill on Manjack after the storm on the VHF. Although Manjack is only five miles north of Green Turtle they escaped the worst of the storm and Bill and Lesley's original home is still standing but got very wet.


Although the rain was torrential during the storm there was a lot of salt spray in the air as well. Anything in mild steel is now rusting away.


I heard a Bahamas Power person say that it might take up to a year to restore power to the areas with severe storm damage.


When the first Bahamas Air plane landed at Treasure Cay the first people out of the plane were troops and police who formed a barrier between the crowd waiting to evacuate and the plane. But they were hardly needed. I never saw anyone rush the plane or shout, or create any trouble whatsoever. There were numerous complaints about the lack of Government organization but somehow the locals coped with the situation.



At the end of the day a very large multi million dollar private plane landed with supplies. The locals backed a dilapidated and very beaten up truck to the cargo door and proceeded to unload it. No problems man! That was something I don't think I would see in the States. One false move by that truck and that plane could have been badly damaged!