A couple of clips of Hurricane Earl's visit to St. John showed up on YouTube this morning. Thankfully, this is all old news.
Most were posted by "walshrmgmail," who, it appears, was on a boat in Cruz Bay harbor, shooting video as the storm began.
hurricane earl
St. John: Morning after at 10:45 a.m.
Island artist Sloop Jones said his East End neighborhood weathered the storm in OK fashion.
Asked about damages, Jones said "Nothing out here. This was a small powerful storm. Maybe three inches of rain. We had one serious blow for about 20 minutes, around 60 mph."
He did have a close call, though. "Around 6 a.m. Monday, I moved my car. 20 minutes later a tree fell where my car was!"
Elsewhere, "Rain came down in sheets," another East End resident, Stephen Hull, told the St. John Source's report.
Sloop Jones, by the way, said he spent most of Monday online, doing e-mail and other e-chores, despite power flickers. He has another business, Dish 'n Dat, which installs HughesNet dishes which provide Internet access via satellite.
St. John: Morning after at 10:25 a.m.
Looks like the St. Thomas airport is still grounded.
An 8:15 a.m. flight to Miami was canceled.
An 8:05 a.m. American Eagle flight to San Juan now has an estimated departure time of 10:50 a.m.
We'll see.
Hurricane Earl: the morning after
The weather is overcast in Cruz Bay but the St. John Spicecam is back in business.
Some may say the dinghy dock is repairable; it sure did get beat up. Surprisingly, moored boats in the harbor are still moored. The camera shows no boats or debris washed up on the beach.
None of the other island webcams (Villa Serendipity at Chocolate Hole, St. John Brewers, Amarosa/Peter Bay) were showing much at 10:15 a.m.
Chain saws, hammering, and the voices of folks cleaning up limbs and debris can be heard around the island. The entrance to Fish Bay has been blocked by a few downed trees. A resident at Mamey Peak said she heard trees cracking during the later part of the storm, Monday afternoon.
Crabby of Coral Bay said he was able to stay ion touch during the storm. "Everyone I've been in contact with still has hard-line phone service — and that is great news."
St. John: Hurricane update 10:00 a.m. EDT
Earl slowed its forward motion overnight, delaying the arrival of its fury about 12 hours. Now the National Hurricane Center says the center of the storm will pass northeast of St. John at about 6 p.m.
CaribStorm.com's "How Close" tool says the outer edge will be 70 miles away. The storm's force is diminished from what it could have been. Earl is expected to be a Category 2 (96-110 mph) when it blows by.
Power's off in Cruz Bay. The St. John Spicecam quit transmitting at about 7 a.m. This is the last picture. Notice it's blurry. The camera was getting blown around. A surprising number of sailboats are still moored in the harbor. How many will be damaged and end up in the Beach Bar, literally? (http://www.stjohnspice.com/stjohnspicecam.htm)
Fish Bay's Karen Radtke Facebooks: "What is it that dog's sense? Cagney is super hyper this morning." Karen's in training for the Susan G Komen 3Day for the Cure walk in Tampa Oct 29-31st.
Walter Hinds apparently hosted an all night hurricane preparedness party at his restaurant in Cruz Bay. Martinis and more. He posted, "It's 6:10 am and I am sitting on the deck of Hinds with some friends and I am holding a beverage (a martini). OK, now it is 7am & there is an hurricane in effect and the school bell across the street just rang…..PRICELESS."
CaribStorm's Dave posted this at dawn. "I have to go to work as one of our clients (a business owner) decided he wanted his hurricane shutters this morning. Nothing like waiting till the last minute and putting others at risk."