Hi again:
It's about 4:30 a.m. right now, and since my little
Captain woke up screaming for him morning "coffee", I
had no choice but to get up (hic!). Taking the
opportunity to check my surroundings once again, I
stepped outside and bumped into the Village Council
chairman, Fermin Marin, walking down the beach
observing the damage. He had just left the
communications center at the Village Council office he
said. According to him, the highest gusts recorded on
Caye Caulker throughout the storm were at 52 mph. He
also said that the tide level rose about 4 � 5' in the
back, submerging the back side of the island up to
about the Alan Chan Supermarket or about two and a
half village blocks in from the back pier, although I
have not been back there to check it myself yet. If
what he said was true, then CC at its narrowest point
had about three out of five street blocks submerged
under water at the same time. Whew! An increase in
tide of about 1 or 2 feet more would have had water
surging across the whole island in points from east to
west, creating a sort of "river". I'm glad this
didn't happen. The potential for terrible erosion
would have been imminent then. It is such a scenario
that originally cause the "split" (a favorite swimming
area where the the island is split in two) in the
first place. And the erosion there is terrible and to
the point of being almost unmanageable today.
The beach in front of my home is littered with sea
grass and debris, but seems to be intact now that the
sea level has normalized. From my own personal
observation, it seems as if the beach was eroded about
two to three feet in from where it was before.
However, since a thirty foot beach was added recently,
this still leaves about twenty seven feet of beach
intact which is not too bad.
For a moment, when the sea level crested, there were
sea creatures such as little baby crabs crawling over
the verandah in front here. The sea level has
subsided now, though, and hopefully they have all gone
back to their homes. Aside for a few small rollers
still coming in, the sea looks calm. The wind seems
to be from the southwest and is cool. Clean up begins
tomorrow.
Any other report will have to wait until further
notice. I think I will go back to sleep!
Ciao.
Wendy