It’s been a case of hurry up and wait for the past five days. Last Friday, islanders began making serious preparations, anticipating Tropical Storm Ana might turn into something nasty.
Doug Benton, owner of Crabby’s Water Sports in Coral Bay, said in an online post, “The sounds of power drills and saws could be heard in the distance yesterday. Screens are coming down, items are being secured.” He also said folks were “making plans for our pets — trying to figure out the best way to keep them safe and comfortable while being cooped up during these events.”
But Ana ran out of gas and passed about 6 miles southwest of St. Croix, bringing some mild rain and wind to St. John.
Then attention turned to Tropical Storm Bill. It quickly grew into a Hurricane and is now classified as a Category 2 with winds of 110 miles an hour. And while it looked for a while that Bill might be a problem, by Monday it’s projected track was north and east of St. John. Folks sighed a bit, but Ana’s wake up call was enough to motivate people to begin nailing things down, stocking up on water and beer, and remembering they live in the middle of the ocean.
StormCarib.com said Bill will likely pass 360 miles northeast of St Thomas by 6 p.m. Thursday. “Tropical storm force winds extend currently out 150 miles and even if they extend 200 miles on Thursday, the only effects felt in the Northern Antilles, other than a huge sigh of relief, will be swells. Hopefully, that will continue and it will miss the Virgin islands.”
Deb and Jay at Live de Life said, “We'll probably still get some rain and wind, but it shouldn't be anything major. We'll still be keeping an eye on all the weather forecasts to see if they are right and we're keeping the storm shutters up, just in case.”
Meanwhile, Marty Beechler at Islandia Real Estate showed that entrepreneurs just want to have fun. On the blog, he wrote, that Bill’s turn to the north is a good thing, “ I am relieved that we will be spared the wrath of Hurricane Bill but now what am I going to do with all these tee shirts?!”