Hold on to Your Hats ...

And now, we’re in the thick of it.

For the past few days, we’ve been keeping our eye on a weather disturbance (Invest 99) just south of us near the Nicaraguan coast. It has been intensifying and moving slowly our way. Today, it was upgraded to Tropical Depression 16, and it’s predicted to become a tropical storm over the next day or so. At this point, four of the six computer models on the tracking map project a path directly over the island. It won’t be a hurricane, but it’s raining cats and dogs already. We’ll likely see the worst late Wednesday into Thursday.

We have spent the day preparing as best we can for such short notice. Kevin took a boat to town to try to restock on food supplies and propane. He also arranged for a diesel delivery this afternoon. I pumped water to fill our reserves. We also got the lodge’s big boat out on a mooring to protect her from damage. We likely won’t need any of these extra precautions, but we want to be prepared just in case.

Complicating matters, we wanted to go down island to take care of some banking and procurement before the storm sets in, but we can’t get there. The islanders have been protesting the power company (which has doubled its rates in the past month) since Monday morning and have blocked the main (meaning only) road on the island. No one can travel anywhere unless it’s via boat or foot. That cuts us off from all of the island but our own port and Oak Ridge. However, most businesses are closed anyway.

At this point, the banks are closed, the grocery store is closed, and the roads are impassable. Oak Ridge is receiving no food or supply deliveries. A cruise ship turned away from port this morning fearing for passenger safety. A TACA flight did the same. The electric company employees are holed up inside and worried about their own safety. They say that if the crowd outside continues to press, they’ll evacuate to protect themselves and turn off all the power. This doesn’t affect us, as we produce all our own power anyway, but it certainly won’t help matters if/when the storm hits.

Are we having fun yet?

Keep your fingers crossed that the storm dissipates quickly. And don’t worry if we don’t respond to e-mail. We lose our satellite connection in heavy rains.