Jump to content

Absence


Recommended Posts

Hi everybody,

 

As some of you are aware, I've been living on the Caribbean island of Dominica doing medical research with a med school there until my next semester started. Tropical storm Erika has trashed the island: we went to bed on Wednesday having heard that the storm would be minor and pass before we woke up, but then the next morning we found our rented house flooded ~3 inches and the street outside had become a river.

 

I'm told that there has been some news coverage, so you may have seen some of the bridges collapse, etc. It's been a crazy, crazy few days. We were stranded in the middle of a canyon from Thursday to this morning without phone access, internet, or water. The power kept going off as -- I'm told -- the generators in Portsmouth didn't have enough fuel to work without a steady stream from the capitol (which was cut off due to bridge collapses).

 

Nobody was killed near us, but there's something crazy like 20 dead and >100 missing people across the island. I joked Thursday morning that the internet gods really didn't want me working on the site, apparently, but the situation escalated so quickly that it just doesn't seem as funny anymore. Fortunately we've got water and food enough to last a week or so, but there's a good chance that the Portsmouth generators will fail later this afternoon and, again, I'll be stranded without internet/phone/power/water.

 

I'll post pictures when I'm able. Just wanted to report in and let you know that I haven't died (yet). I've got something like 900 emails to go through (downloading them to my tablet so even if the power goes off I'll be able to read them), but I'm going to hit them all. If you have an urgent problem please email me. If there's a true emergency I'm willing to take your phone number and call you (one of the phone providers here should be able to work even if the power goes off) (not sure I believe it, though), tho that's probably a bit of overkill.

 

Thanks for your patience. Apologies to VNTS fans, maef, Nayleen, Decay, and others for waiting on my Fuwa work and no-doubt feeling frustrated when I didn't appear. 

 

- Tay

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jesus Christ. Everything really does seem to be coming down on you whenever they have a chance, huh?

 

Also, that 'like' is not that I enjoyed reading these news (that shall remain undisclosed), it's for you being willing to report the situation even under these circumstances and for your continued good luck (as far as that one goes in the middle of a gian storm).

 

Best of luck, truly.

Bloody hell...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Internet is going in and out, but I thought I'd try and post some pictures. I didn't get any of the actual storm -- it hit in the middle of the night. Most the pictures I took were of the apartment after we'd finished sweeping water out. There's one in there of my "room" -- a yoga mat in a study room at the med school -- and my cat. Because she's cute. When trouble calls just jump in a box. Sounds simplistic, but that's what she did and it worked for her.

 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4EOK3NC-t7afjVGdEhJeVoyUlV5TUdPbklOS3ZaLTNCOE9mX0hlN01wMk5QTnM5ZG9sVjA&usp=sharing 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was watching Erika since it was a wave of energy off Africa. Despite how bad it hit the area, Tay is very very lucky it wasn't worse. Erika hit some strong westerly winds that shredded the storm apart and kept it from forming into Hurricane. I believe the system was barely a tropical storm when it hit the island. 

 

Stay safe Tay, there are a few more systems coming off the African coast the next few days. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...