... and Belize gets the honors

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/31/ts.arthur/index.html

Please take note of the weather forum here for updates as the season progresses...

Watch out New Orleans and Florida panhandle!!

I hope everyone weathered the storm OK!

What storm? Must've been sleeping!

I thought you were too busy to sleep!

Well, after a year of counting down, we finally arrived - to the first named storm of the season. We were expecting thunderstorms, but we got Arthur. But, as Simon says, what storm? We spent 2 nights at the Radisson in BZE, waiting for the sun & watching the waves & rain out our hotel room window. We were planning on taking the 1:30 ferry today, but early this morning we figured we should go while the going was good, so we left on the 10:30. Lots of wind, but just waves of rain. It's still pretty windy, but rain seems to have stopped since Arthur has moved inland now. Hopefully we'll see some sun tomorrow - I'd love to put on my bathing suit & hop in the pool!

But, still beats workin'

Penny

Penny,

are you on the island? I see you posted under an hour ago and mention the rain has stopped. It has been pouring here where I am on the island all day very hard and still is. Where are you right now?

Why did you stay on the mainland two days in the raddison room? I was on the mainland on Thur and came back Thursday afternoon when it was still sunny and dry.

We went to bed to rain (not bad after 6 days of sunshine) and woke to more, heavy rain. At least the power was back on after the past few days of intermittent outages. Checked the internet and realized there was more going on than expected. The Weather Channel did its usual "the sky is falling" forecast, while we enjoyed a few hours napping and reading a good book.

Family called from home hoping we were OK handling the storm. We were fine, if napping counts.

Looks like we'll take the opportunity to work on our skills with some recado making our first attempt at grilled chicken with rice and beans!

Bob & Jane

ah, darn! At least power is still on unlike yesterday but now it's raining like baseballs and deep puddles you can't walk through and the tv says "searching for satellite signal. Please stand by" I think that means it's time for bed, but I am not tired!

Wish Cal's weather station was up and running. I'd love to see the rain totals for the last few days.

Here's the list of names for this year: Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paloma, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, Wilfred.

What happened to the weather station?

Not sure, maybe something to do with the power outages.

It's rained about this much. (Bob holds his hand about a foot and a half off the floor, while trying not to spill that first cup of coffee). Ok, maybe not quite.

Stay safe everyone.

Hurricane Cristobal?

It's going to be hard to take that one seriously...

Sounds like a little prep school kid who gets a bloody nose when a breeze blows by!

How about Hurricane Nana?? My Nana may be a blowhard but c'mon!

Storm seems like it's here to me. Waves are pretty big...wind has to be 30mph at the Tacklebox. And the rain is hard and steady.

I'm kinda scared of Ike.

Hurricane Ike.

I just got shivers...

Bertha doesn't sound good either...

Really WINDY... Waves breaking over the docks at times....

We are getting a short break in the rain about once an hour. Everyone scurries about as fast as possible.
We just had a Arthur party here as the power was out but I have a big stainless steel propane grill. Chicken, fish, shrimp, the works! Some cook, everyone eats and then some clean. I get to sit and enjoy this great mix of people.
Power came back on just as we finished cooking.

The power must have gone out during my Arthur nap...

Power went off for about 3 seconds a bit before 8pm. Finally did for my laser printer, which I was using at the time. Now it won't even start. Just like my wireless router, which after the battering it's had over the past few days now doesn't provide a wireless signal.

Do BEL accept any responsibility for this sort of thing?

It is raining like crazy and the waves are as bad as they've been all year...watching the little boats next to the Tacklebox getting tossed right now...

Now guys... (hiding in shame) I really loved the rain; filled up all my tanks in 3 days - think we took about 20 inches of rain judging by the water dumps we did.

My neighbor asked me in the future not to pray for rain anymore; he thinks I overdid it a little this time - I'm sorry for that!

Wow, what a wild ride - hope everyone / everything is okay. Nothing major here at Banyan Bay - some tree limbs down, LOTS of standing water, some water inside but not too bad (came in under the front door, forgot to put towels down), water still off but at least power and DSL are up. When it peaked about 5 I was having my doubts...

yeah, sort of ironic that we have no water

no kidding. And septic is flooded so even with buckets of water in the tank to flush toilet - it's going nowhere. *eeeeuuuuwwwww*

Standing water is going down here - good thing, was about an inch from the front door.

Just heard that streets from Ramons to airstrip are flooded and impassable. Minimal crew here now. Heard winds reached 60 mph - figured at least 70-80.

Wonder how all the palapas and docks fared. Waves didn't seem too terribly bad so maybe docks okay?

Could have been worse though, huh? Maybe that's it for the season...

At least have plenty of food and booze. Stocked up on red wine in case power craters again - no need to chill it =)

"Just heard that streets from Ramons to airstrip are flooded and impassable."

Flooded but not impassable, just drive slow.

Some poor soul has their 40-50' sailboat up on the seawall at Island Academy, looks like it broke anchor during the night.

Docks all appear to be fine, several boats sank overnight.

Thanks for the updates, y'all.

Stay safe!!

Just got back from town will update blog as soon as blogger lets me in ha ha.

Lots of water everyone seems to be ok as far as we saw just windblown and wet.

Please rain, please rain.... OK TOO MUCH RAIN TOO MUCH RAIN!!

People died down south...seven confirmed so far. Search continues.

Was out at 6AM bailing the boat, saw signs and tree branches down, more than usual beach erosion, may boats are under water and some streets are flooded. The weather seems to be improving at the moment.



SIN

I would imagine some major flooding, where abouts Jesse? Stann Creek/Toledo?

Jesse, that is just awful!

My friend has at least an inch of water in his place and he is up high! Lots of rain, more than he has seen with the hurricanes the last few years.

called bws as we turned on all the water to drain some out of cistern and well....and water backed up in showers, etc....they said they are working on the sewer lines....

new drain from road to sea seems to be working well though,.., I think that new wall at ramon's is keeping some of the water out on the streets.....

yuck

The night sky was lighted up for hours.

BOOM – BOOM – BOOM –--- C-R-A-S-H!
I had visions of Bob Kjorlein’s Cloisters being blown apart. There was not a second between lightening flashes and thunder burst; it was hard to tell which one caused the other. This seemed to last for hours but it was hard to judge and the power went on and off as frequently as TV commercials.

Reaper’s landing field is now a lake and the road from Coco Loco’s bar to the bridge is underwater. I do not see any downed trees but then we have nothing but palms here – no hardwoods.

My phone has been out for five days and with all the other problems I see no repair soon. Now this morning the internet is down (I’ll post this when it comes up.) At least the TV is working and I can get the weather channel. Arthur is taking a vacation directly over Belize and is expected to stay a few more days.

I’m so very happy that I put in my hurricane supplies the day before the downpour started.

Rudy came by yesterday with two of his workmen to make sure I was OK. Without power at the workshop they can not work* so were headed north to get the Bar-B-Q setup to take back across the bridge to cook the mess of fish that were thawing in the freezer. I suggested that rather than do that they come to my condo and use the oven and we could have a party. I had him call Steve up at the northern house and invite him to bring his family and join us.

Naturally, as soon as the guys drove off the power went out. An hour later everyone converged on the condo at the same time – arms loaded with enough food to last all day. They had met Sergeant Myles on the road and invited him and his lady friend. Fortunately I have a propane gas grill and even had propane. Rudy, always the master chef cooked up a meal to rival any restaurant on the island.
Appetizers’ were fresh sour sap fruit and shrimp and mushroom soup over rice.
Two main courses were served; grilled chicken heavily basted in Rudy’s secret sauce and stuffed baked fish. Many, many fish! Rudy’s stuffing is ingenious and delicious.

I have two oil lamps for light but the wind was too strong for them to stay lighted. We kept the entry door at the top of the stairs open in order to get fresh air. This created a real wind tunnel. The power came back on just as we sat down to eat and continued through the clean up. I just love parties here! Back in California I was always left with a mess to clean up. Here my place is left cleaner than when the guests arrived.

I like the old saying “When handed lemons make lemonade.” How about “When the power goes out seize the power and have a party?”

* These storms are an incontinence for many of us but a hardship for many other. Without power the work sites are closed down and these folks do not get paid when they do not work. Help them when you can.

When handed limes, drink Tequila.

Harriette, we're heading to The Cloisters later this month. Did Bob have any damage, I can't get a hold of him?

"Incontinent" storms are very very bad.

Stay safe everyone -- so very sorry to hear about the loss of life down south

Quite a few small boats have gone down. The boats will be OK once they're refloated, but the engines may be scrap. Some dock damage as well.

During Dean the water never rose higher than 8" below the ground floor of my house. At 4am this morning it was within 2".

We're not alone in this. Across Europe they've had severe rain and flash floods, and there's a warning out for London and SE England. I don't know about global warming, but there's certainly global wettening.

Thought I had dodged a bullet here, only minimal water in under the front door. Then about 10 the hot water tank in the upstairs unit decided to go out. yup, all running down through the ceiling and down the walls. And of course it's coming down in the bodega where all my supplies are. Now of the mindset that water is NOT my friend.

Ran back and forth to the laundry grabbing towels, sopping up water, grabbing more towels, more sopping. Got it mostly cleaned up, jumped in the shower, got out, guess what? yup. no towel

Sheesh if it's not one thing it's another. or, as my sister says, if it's not one thing it's your mother... hehe

Humor is good... we're all thinking about y'all.

Weather channel just crashed - too funny???

Your party sounds great Scubalady