‘The other side’. Thank you one and all, near and far, for all your wonderful heartfelt messages. Beautiful.
The main thing is we’re safe. Battered and bruised but safe. It’s hard to put into words what just happened. Nightfall brought with it Irma’s onslaught, power lost and communications down. Darkness in more ways than one. Noise unlike anything imaginable.
These images from space are unbelievable. With Irma the Giant now cutting a destructive swathe through the Bahamas as she marches towards Florida, we can perhaps count ourselves lucky. Lucky because the Caicos Banks protected us from the storm surge. Lucky because not everyone got off so lightly. Lucky, because we know what havoc she wrought down south and lucky because we know it’s going to be really bad for our northern neighbours.
Our boats are fine, the office a little trashed. Look closely at images 2,3,4 & 5 and you will see how close Irma’s eye came to the #turksandcaicos – the north wall was only about 18 miles away, sparing us from the full force of 165+ mph winds. That’s not to say major 100-mile hour winds have not devastated large portions of the Islands, especially those less fortunate than us who don’t have concrete homes and solid roofs. The news from areas in Five Cays, Blue Hills and Downtown doesn’t sound good. Our Grand Turk and South Caicos cousins took the full brunt. We don’t have much news yet.The full impact of Irma will likely take days to be revealed.
So while we take stock on our predicament, we are also keeping one wary eye on Jose, who is about to ravage the Leeward Islands with another hammer blow. The lasting effects of these September storms will live long in the memory but it’s not over yet. Irma is heading into dense low-lying coastal populations of the Northern Bahamas and Florida while she batters Cuba on the way.
Our thoughts turn north as we hold our breath for the inevitable heartbreaking destruction Mother Nature will render. Nature is telling us something. Whether we listen or not is inconsequential to her. She will address the imbalance as she always does one way or another. One love #hurricaneirma #madeofocean @noaasatellites @ Turks and Caicos Islands