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20 August, 2011

We Dodged It

And we didn't even have to duck.

Well, we did do the appropriate preparedness things - for the most part.

We picked up all the crap and debris that tends to accumulate when nothings happening; we put up the plywood over the burglar bars; furled up the awning (for the second time) this morning; put the deck chairs into the pool pump house; made sure the evacuation kit was in order (well, at least I found it and put it where it could be grabbed at a moment's notice); found our 4-way radio - solar, battery, dynamo, and A/C.

I discovered I'd neglected to remove the three AA batteries from it the last time, probably for Arthur. Finally managed to remove them and all their leaking crud. The radio still works - Yea!; and we began listening to Rene 'the Chief' on Love FM out of Belize City. The one true source of disaster information throughout Belize. During Hurricane Dean, he and his crew were on the air continuously for more than 24 hours. A great service and a lot of information.

After a few minutes here and there with heavy rain and some wind (our highest gust was about 13 MPH - othing to it.), that was about it for us. From the radio, it sounded like there were a few folks down around Dangriga who had some trees blow over. Then about 3:30 PM the Belize Met Office discontinued the Tropical Storm Warning for Belize City north -  which includes us. So, that pretty much wrapped it up.

We'll probably begin pulling some of the plywood down tomorrow and put it away for next time. I probably will unfurl the awning again. We have to be able to get back into the pool, y'know.

Next, we'll do a review of our emergency checklist, remembering to add to it to remove any batteries from the radios, and thank the stars for being merciful on us once again. And so it goes in paradise. This one was easy.

4 comments:

Mardena Murray said...

I LOVE your blog!!! I'm in process of reading it start to finish!! Thank you so much for posting! I'm so glad that you all faired well thru this storm!

Dave Rider said...

Thanks for the nice comment Mardena. I hope you continue to enjoy it. It's been a fun project for me - a labor of love.

Cheers,
Dave

JRinSC said...

Looks like things are finally looking up in your hood! Glad all went easy and no problems developed.

Did the winds raise the water level in the bay very much? I seem to remember that that is one major worry from a lot of wind from the east.

Take care,

Julian

Dave Rider said...

Hi Julian,

Pooltime this afternoon! Plywood's all put away, the awning is back up, and the beer is cold with the newly repaired fridge. Life is good.

Bay and more importantly, the canal levels only went up about 6". If the storm had been closer and/or stronger, there may have been concerns. Being on the NE corner of the storm is not the best place to be for winds and surges. Worked out well in this case, though.

Cheers,
Dave