The weather isn’t typically much of a cause for concern around these parts, we are brushed by a tropical storm a few times every year or two or even a hurricane on the rare occasion. (We’ve had three hurricanes hit us since arriving on the island – Fabian in September 2003, Florence in Sept 2006, and Igor in September of 2010 – see list of all storm activity here if you’re interested!)
We usually have plenty of notice when a storm is coming, it very rarely is able to creep up on us. We all pay close attention when a hurricane is on it’s way, but a tropical storm really isn’t much to worry about. Bermuda buildings are typically well-built and withstand tropical storms with relative ease, the biggest thing is the inconvenience of losing power due to downed poles, trees, etc. and roads being blocked by trees or these fallen power poles / lines.
We were aware that a storm named Fay was on it’s way since the middle of the week, it was only to be a sub-tropical storm or maybe a tropical storm. Likely a few downed trees, power out for a few hours… a non-event.
As expected, we woke up this morning to a dark and silent house (with the exception of the howling wind outside). It’s always a little concerning to wake up in these conditions but its also exciting in a way… The power went out once and came back on during the night, then went out again at 6:30am or so for what turned out to be nearly the whole day. We were a little surprised when we looked outside in the early morning light to see about half of our big tree in the front yard strewn all over the grass and adjacent road! That and our trampoline flipped completely over and pummeled in our lower yard… Wasn’t much we could do at this point, it was still storming out, as it would be for another 2-3 hours. (Above: screen shot of the radar this morning, you can see the distinctive ‘eye’ in the storm formation which swirled around the center dot representing Bermuda, and the other shot is out our front window during a big gust.)
Luckily we have a gas stove, so it was pancakes and bacon for breakfast!
After breakfast we ventured outside (the storm was settling down) to survey the damage. It was hard to get a decent look at everything from the house as the windows were either shuttered or covered in leaves and being rained on, so we confirmed a few suspicions and were actually surprised by the amount of debris scattered around.
As you can see, the big tree suffered some battle wounds and our trampoline was taken down for the three count as well. There is (was!) a Bermuda stone wall about 4 or so feet high between us and the neighbors to the west, a big chunk of that toppled into our yard when a tree they had planted right beside the wall came down and took the wall with it.
Our swingset / playset had a tarp over the top for some shade, it was beginning to look it’s age before the storm with a few small holes – luckily the storm got rid of that eyesore for us, too.
We have a pergola behind the house (west side) that escaped the storm with only a bit of ripped shade fabric on top, should be repairable. My bbq, however, received an odd injury – a hole in the lid. Not quite sure how this came about (the bbq was tipped over, but still!).
We were well bored by the afternoon, what with no power and the very humid and warm weather making it hard to sit still for too long. I know the kids were super bored when Josh decided that we should all get outside and start cleaning up! He and Ryley put on their gardening gloves and started dragging tree parts into a pile.
They were very helpful, and Ryley kept morale high with a singing interlude part way through the cleanup effort.
I’m not sure if the guys who cut the grass will be grateful or not that we made them two big piles of tree debris, but we did it anyway, a good way to kill a few hours of the afternoon.
We were fairly lucky in that power came back in the early evening – about 5:30pm – while there were about 17,000 residents still without power. Also, they have announced already that most of the island’s schools are closed tomorrow due to several varying issues relating to the storm – this is our version of a Snow Day, I suppose you could say!
So overall I think the storm turned out to be a little more than what we expected. Officially I believe it was still officially a Tropical Storm, bordering on a category 1 hurricane with gusts that definitely reached into the hurricane-force territory. Lots more info / pictures of the storm at Bernews and the Royal Gazette.
Hopefully we will be a little more prepared for the next one (which just may be around the corner…) – don’t underestimate the power of mother nature!