Friday, August 29, 2008

Gusty Gustav

So many people including myself got tricked by tropical storm Gustav. At some point in time it shifted from passing north of Jamaica to passing over the dead center of our island. I knew about it but it seemed fairly disorganized for me to be that concerned about it so I went to work Thursday morning as usual. There wasn't much to do there so I was back home by 1pm and started to prepare for the storm.. yes, shame on me for waiting until then to prepare. I had enough tin food from last year so the only thing left was for me to collect some water and cover my stuff with plastic.

As the storm penetrated our little island I watched the news coverage on TV as people called in and reported fires on the power transmission poles, downed power lines and strong gusts of winds. I looked around and noticed I possibly subconsciously arranged what I now dub my 'MacGyver' survival kit on the edge of my pool table. These are items that have probably been all over my apartment for months but now a swiss army knife, 2 lighters, a paper clip, a serrated pocket knife and a $1 coin found them self together. I didn't have a flashlight but I had hundreds of little tea candles that would have provided me with continuous light for weeks if power went away. Was I really prepared?

One thing for sure work had me prepared (supposedly). Before I left work yesterday my boss gave me a so I can work from home if my dsl went or the dialup server died.. how thoughtful. When I reached home I pulled out my laptop and saw a flaw in their plan, my pcmia slot was broken(thats how I received my laptop from them). How could I have forgotten about that? anyway power never went away and I was glad. Everybody who called me told me they didn't have power or water. Up until I went to bed at 2am I had power, water, cable and internet service. I also noticed that there was about 2 feet of water on the main road that was now a river. That was very disturbing but I was high and mostly dry in the ghetto penthouse.

10 comments:

Ann (MobayDP) said...

We had power in most places in Mobay up until about 3:00am this morning. Very few places in Mobay and I dare say St. James have power. Some places are also without water.

I wsa tricked by this storm as well. I never took it seriously because, well...you know. It was ONLY a tropical storm.

Well. Let me tell you that I learned that Tropical Storms are not necessarily lightweights. I also realised that if this fellow had strengthened to a cat 2 I would have been up a serious crap creek.

It's 5:08pm on Friday and we're STILL feeling Gustave's gusts and rain and are without power.

Adrian said...

good to know y'all are ok over there.

it seems as if I posted this prematurely.. I forgot to mention when I woke up this morning the water was gone.. how annoying. I have to give thanks anyway, I'm still a lot better off than a lot of people. I took some pics of outside when the rain eased up, maybe I'll add them later.

lol off to go bathe in some rain water now.

Anonymous said...

you bastard. with your light all throughout the hurricane. i saw your google talk name. i popped online intermittently via my pocket pc and cw unlimited data sim card. Wish it was the same. but its cool, i got alot of killing time in on god of war for psp

Good to know that you had no trouble.. Re the survival kit that is top notch dude all your missing is chewing gum.

laroper18 said...
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laroper18 said...
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Crankyputz said...

I liked your survival kit..

Glad your safe..and able to post..

Unknown said...

I had power and water though the hurricane and of course internet as you can see from my post.

That's some survival kit, but what happen to the tin mackerel and bully beef?

Gussie said...

LOL @ the McGyver survival kit. I think it's missing a hairpin, dental floss and aluminium foil in addition to the chewing gum.

Adrian said...

lol there was gum on my table.. it was just a bit out of the frame though. :)

Tami said...

A coin Adrian? A coin?
What you gonna do with that? Then again good name for it cuz Mcgyver could do anything with just about anything but are you as effective as he was?