Experiencing Hurricane Irma

bycodevonish

2.6K followers

6 years ago

Nature unleashed its fury on Anguilla in the form of a category 5+ hurricane named Irma; After several days of warnings and tracking, she came like a bullet train destroying any and everything in its path.

I listened and watched from my bedroom through the two double French doors that are without curtains or shutters; I was never so scared in my life; the bullet like speed of the mixture of rain and wind looked like a sheet of stationary ice.

I heard a loud bang and I knew that the small 12 inch window to the guest rest room had been blown off, the hinges were a little rusted; the rushing wind blew the external bolt off the door threatening to engulf the entire floor. It was imperative to keep that door closed to prevent a build up of pressure inside the house. I also opened a window on the opposite side from which the wind was blowing, just in case.

There was an antique ice box which we also use as a liquor cabinet, I positioned the icebox behind the door and sat there for an eternal 45 minutes, holding the door shut as the wind pushed the icebox back at least 5 inches every two minutes.

As I sat there holding the door shut and pushing the icebox back, I watched the wind pounding on a metal side door creating a visible gap of at least a quarter of an inch, giving the impression that the wind was being blown from inside out.

On two separate occasions I had to scream at my wife for standing in front of the door, I knew for sure that her body could not survive a blow from it if it was blown open by a gust of wind in excess 200 miles an hour.

Thank God it was over and we were still alive, wiggles the cat emerged from his hiding place visibly traumatized.

The first job was to access the damage, the front number plate and the back bumper of the Toyota was gone, nowhere to be seen. Part of the wooden railings from the front balcony had fallen and damaged the front fender; the entire front grid and both number plates from the Vitz was ripped off and must have flown like a kite.

Despite the 200 + miles per hour winds and the earthquake like shaking of the concrete structure, the house suffered cosmetic damages, the small window from the small bathroom was gone and half of one French door on the first floor, both were due mainly to weaknesses in the frame which were there before the hurricane.

There was no way to escape some water, wherever there was a cease the water found its way in, but it was not a huge problem.

The full shock of the damage caused by the hurricane was was not experienced until two days later.