“have you heard anything about evacuations of the Bay Islands?”
No, sorry I haven’t. If Roatan takes a direct hit, I would certainly hope they would evacuate to the mainland. Do you have friends/family there too?
Thank you for the link!
Reality of things to come, from the Island of Roatan:
It has begun.
The hardware store is still closed & will open at 6:30 am. There will surely be pandemonium. What 4 x 8 plywood is available is $65 a sheet. One builder wants $400 in labor to cover the windows on our little house. We have found people to help us.
The wind has picked up considerably. Felix is now officially a Category 4. All tracking shows Roatan a direct hit. It could become a 5. Hurricane Andrew has been reported the worst hurricane in recorded history & it was a 5.
We have no Red Cross, National Guard or large shelter facilities. The hospitals are poorly equipped for disasters, we have no morgue or embalmers. When the gas boats cannot get in, we will all run out of gasoline.
It is fortunate that Roatan is a tight knit community & we all help each other. However, Honduras is also one of the poorest countries in the world so there will be very little help from the government when this is over.
The birds in the jungle have stopped singing. Odd how the creatures know when something unusual is about to happen. Our 2 parrots are huddled together, saying “Hi? Hello?”
Our Newfoundland walked into the house, threw up & left, looking frightened. The cats have vanished.
We plan to board up the house in the morning, then evacuate to our store. We hope to board that up as well if we can locate enough plywood. 3 giant dogs, 2 cats , 2 parrots & us in one tiny shop- Welcome to the Ark.
It won’t be difficult to round up the dogs & catch the kitties, who are all already scared, but the parrots will be a bit tricky. Their huge cage can’t go, so I had thought I would put them in the inside bathroom with lots of food & water with the cage door open. That way, when the roof blows off, they have a
chance to survive. Then I remembered reading that when food was scarce here, during Hurricane Fifi in 1974, the wild parrots were eaten. So I will roll them in a beach towel & try not to be bitten to death.
I think I will have a “Thar She Blows Sale “....Open 24/7, just like the Gap ....
I have thousands of dollars of inventory in my house; lamps, large mirrors, home decor, with nowhere to store them properly.
I watched a big plane land today, full of tourists. I wonder, do they know what is about to happen? Why are they coming? The airport will soon be closed. The ferry to the mainland will stop soon too, as the seas become more treacherous.
We had customers in the store today, stressful, they needed a shopping fix...we had a good day..odd.
When Tony gets home from work tonight, he is making us pizza. Maybe the last one we have for a long time.
This will be quite a challenge, but we are up to it. We have to be.
I will be posting events as they happen, as long as I can.
Penny Leigh
Sand Castles Interior Design
www.roatan-sandcastles.com
(from RDTF’s link: http://stormcarib.com/reports/current/honduras.shtml