Hurricane, – Kiwis Do Fly

The Story Of The Hurricane – The Finale

Published on November 1, 2019February 18, 2025 by kiwisdofly21 Comment

Keeping spirits up! Our dear friend Rhonda, heating up our Army Rations!

15 October 2017,

We still can the believe it how we ended up leaving. Chris’s brother Kevin and sister Maureen were starting to get very worried about us so contacted the Foreign Office in NZ. They were wonderful! They contacted the NZ Embassy in Washington DC, who also tried to contact us with no luck, so it got escalated up to the US State department, still no-one could reach us.

Nearly our turn for the phone call to Washington

Day 15, we are getting the odd moment of signal on my cell phone. I managed to listen to my voice messages and found a message from Oliver from NZ Embassy in Washington. I had also received a txt from Leigh-Ann saying that Kevin was trying to get us evacuated. And that was it, no more signal! We went up to the square and got in the line for the sat phone and called Washington. During this call she took all our details and said she would email the State Department to say we were safe at the moment but quite keen to leave. I said I would ring them again at the same time the next day to find out any update. We are neighbours with the coordinator for the red cross so we talked to her, she talked to the comms guy and they arranged for us to come back in the morning to make this call from the Emergency Control Centre, on their Sat phone, no waiting in the queue. The fact that the State Department was involved, made us pretty special!!

So we called in the morning (Wednesday) to find they had been calling and txting, nothing getting through, desperately trying to let us know we had been booked on a flight that afternoon, get to San Juan by 1:15. It is currently 10:45! No, we cant make it! It is an hour ferry ride (even if one is leaving NOW) then another hour car ride to San Juan (we have heard that the publicos are not running) so no way we could make it. Got off the phone and told the Red Cross rep this and she said yes you can make it!! We will take you to the airport, there is a flight going to San Juan at noon, we will get you on that. So we called the embassy back and told them that we will do our best to make that flight, please don’t cancel us! And we did it! We raced home, packed our bags and shut the door. Hilda took us to the airport on Vieques, we were the only 2 on this special flight to San Juan.

Our beautiful island looked like it had been on fire, all the foliage was dead

Vieques airport was like a plane graveyard, planes had been tossed around like toys during the storm.

At San Juan we checked in with Tourism Puerto Rico who were accounting for all the passengers for the humanitarian flight, then lined up for 3 hours to get our boarding pass. There were families with small children there who were sleeping at the airport, who knows how long they had been there, they got on the flight too, we were so pleased. So off we go, we were heading to Newark! Where’s that? New Jersey, ok cool…………….. so……….where’s New Jersey?? No idea!

The flight was put on by United. The crew and Pilots were volunteers. We had the full service on the plane – luxury – real food! Our Steward really looked after us, we had a couple of glasses of wine with our dinner then our Stewardess brought us over a bottle of wine to take with us to the hotel! She said we needed it! Unbelievable! The crew were all so wonderful. There were a lot of people on that flight who, clearly, had never been on a plane before and there were many who needed assistance to get around. Everyone was so kind and patient. Red Cross were handing out food, soft toys and care packages of toiletries etc when we got off the plane. There were quite a few media interviewing people. We were booked into a hotel and transferred there.

We weren’t sure what we were going to do with ourselves after this but we were now able to make contact with the outside world at last. It was 2am by now. We emailed Bob and Lou and they replied in the morning to come up to them. So we went back to the airport and went to the United desk. The night before, people on our flight were being ticketed to further destinations, we hardly really knew where we were, let alone that we could have gone further. (we possibly could have gotten all the way to NZ if we had known to ask) We were just so grateful at this point to be where we were. The lady at the counter started saying we were too late, we couldn’t go further on the government. We hadn’t expected that we would, we were happy to buy a ticket.

But then she had a rethink and said she would talk to here supervisor, next minute, we are on a flight to Portland! She said it wasn’t fair for us to be stranded in New Jersey, all the other passengers got to go where they needed to go, so we did too! So there we were heading north, Bob came and picked us up and we felt very safe! What a journey. We didn’t realise quite how much this event had affected us. We spent 10 days with Bob and Lou, that was probably 8 days longer than we thought we would stay. But we needed that down time to gather our thoughts and get over it, actually I don’t even know how to describe how I felt/feel. I didn’t appreciate how difficult it was. At the time it was just what was happening and you just had to get on with it. Though we were feeling very thankful and relieved to now be safe, I was filled with a great sense of guilt, we were able to leave, we had a place to go. The people of Vieques didn’t, we left a lot of good friends without being able to say goodbye, it felt like abandoning a sinking ship.

Our lovely neighbour Alberto would leave plantains at our door step at times – the only fresh food we had for a while!

We are so very grateful to Kevin and Maureen, for initiating the “extraction” and persevering to see it through. We are so very thankful to Hilda and the Red Cross on Vieques for having the belief that she could get us to that flight on time! Oliver, then Angela at the NZ Embassy in Washington DC and Daniel from the US State Department, didn’t give up trying to contact us and communicated together to make it happen. Kevin said Alexandria and the team at The Foreign Office at home were great to deal with, so professional and caring. We are so thankful to Jae and the team at the Emergency Control Centre, who were so patient and accommodating of our need to make more than our 1 minute calls. A huge thank you to the crew air-side and on the ground of United Airlines, they ROCK!!

We left so many dear friends on Vieques, we feel so sad that we didn’t get to say good bye, but these are forever friends, we will always stay in touch. We survived a cat 5 hurricane, the most devastating storm (at the time) on record.!!

WOW!!

This blog is dedicated to our dear friend Rhonda who lost her short battle with cancer a little over a year following the hurricane. Vieques will not be the same without her beautiful smile and infectious love of life! Rest now beautiful, always in our hearts xx

The Story Of The Hurricane – Part 3 – MARIA

Published on October 19, 2019February 18, 2025 by kiwisdofly27 Comments

We can now see the lighthouse from our home in Bravos

Maria

Email written 0930 19 September 2019. We have been told the power will go off at 6 tonight , but it just went off for 5 minutes. So I thought I better get this out before it goes again. We are picking 6pm optimistic! We are ready for this! but it will be different to the last one. We were so lucky with the change of course with Irma, I don’t think so this time. For one thing all the models are agreeing with her course, unlike Irma. The National guard have arrived on the island, so hopefully no trouble here. Huge trouble on Tortola following Irma. Tempers are flaring here, everyone is very stressed and angry. Just to remind you, our house is concrete and very solid, flat roof and louver windows. It is very strong. If we have to we will move downstairs to the BnB as it has less windows and exposure to the weather. OK the power has been off and on a couple of times so will send this now. I have my cell phone but keeping it charged is a problem. They are thinking of cutting the water off at some point today as well. We have enough drinking water for about 8 days!
This email never got sent

The most terrifying night of my life!

The power has been off since mid-morning ad Rhonda arrived about 12, it is starting to get quite windy. It increases all day and by about 1930 it feels about the same as Irma. It is dark now, and we all decide that we should go to bed – maybe we can sleep through the worst of it – they said pre-dawn will be the worst.

We all did sleep, but the noise of the wind woke me after a couple of hours and I couldn’t lie there anymore. It is pitch black, Rhonda is asleep and so is Chris. I can’t see anything out the windows it’s too dark. The noise is getting louder and the windows are getting silted up on the outside. Water is starting to come in under the door at the back and the front porch. I am checking the windows constantly trying to see what’s going on outside. I can see blue and red flashing glows out there, the National Guard are patrolling, this is quite comforting. Checking checking, round and round the house, what can I do?

It is quieter and safest in the bunk room, we have pushed the 2 bunks up against the inside wall, furthest away from the 1 window in that room. A light out the back keeps coming on – we have no power! There must be someone out there! It is so dark outside but then the light comes on I can see that it is like looking through mist, its like the light is shining from under a blanket. I dismiss this thought but it keeps happening so I wake Chris up, terrified that someone is out there and needs help. Turns out to be a battery powered security light I didn’t even know we had.

1am, 2am, 3am, still awake, I try to rest, must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, I woke to Rhonda screaming, I jumped off the bunk into ankle deep water, my heart is racing and I am shaking, I get to Rhonda and she is OK just got a fright wit all the water. its 3:30am, we try bailing the water into the shower, more coming in than we can keep up with, the water from the front is meeting the water from the back! The noise now is deafening, I want to look out the windows, but Rhonda yells, keep away from the windows! She is right, they are buckling under the pressure and look like they will blow in and any moment. Roaring bangs and crashes outside, sounds like cars colliding, if you were outside now you probably wouldn’t survive.

Chris is up now and we are all bailing – this is useless, but we have to do something! It is like it is raining inside the house, water is coming in horizontally through every louver window gap, everything is soaked. The mud is coming in with the water, this is so frightening!

5am we give up, Rhonda and I go to the bunk room and huddle up in the corner praying the windows stay intact and the roof stays on. If that happened, we would just have to stay covered as much as we can and ride it out, we realise now that there would be nowhere to go, and no safe way to get there, its all for one at this stage. Chris lies on the couch, safe from the front doors at least, I must have drifted off.

6am its just getting light, the wind seems to be dying down a bit, it is still raining. I try to see out the window through the mud caked on the glass. It looks like a war zone, Pam and Kim’s roof terrace has gone, I can see our gate down the driveway, roofing iron everywhere. As it gets lighter and the wind gets less we can open the doors and start sweeping the water and mud out. Rhonda’s car is written off, looks like it has been in a high speed collision. The roof of the yellow house flew into the car and ended up in the orange houses yard. Trees, branches, fences, power poles, all down, we now have a full view of the Atlantic Ocean. Its hard to comprehend what I am seeing.

Rhonda’s car saved the bottom level of the house from flying iron

It was terrifying during the hurricane and then the aftermath was as bad. So many people lost everything. We can’t believe no-one was killed (during the storm on Vieques anyway) People are amazingly though, and so resilient. The community really did come together and help each other. We would meet at the square everyday to talk with people. This was the only way we have communication. At this stage we had no idea about anywhere else, not even the other side of our little island. The roads were blocked, the power was off, no phone coverage.

The municipality were great and did everything that they could given their limited resources. By day 7 they were giving out Military ration packs of food and bottled water to everyone and holding a meeting at 2pm everyday to advise of the situation. Day 8 they offered a 2 minute satellite call for everyone. I took that opportunity to call Mum to get the word out that we were ok. I lined up for 2 hours but it was worth it.

Unlike Irma, it continued to rain and was overcast for 3 days, everything was so wet and could not get dry. It was incredible to see the destruction nature can cause. The trees which were still standing had no foliage and even worse – no bark!

We had decided by now that we should try to leave but we were hearing that San Juan airport was still not functional except for the military. So there was no point in us going to the main land to then camp out at the airport for days, we were safer where we were.

We were quite worried about the crime which was increasing every day. Chris rigged up some traps around our house with our neighbour and devised a signal system if people were on the property. Chris had a picaxe on his side of the bed. It was so dark! A few homes had generators so had power but they were running out of fuel and the lines for the gas stations (on the days that fuel did come across on the ferry) were 5 hours long! There was a curfew in place from 6pm to 5am, this was policed by the National Guard who had come across to the island the day before Maria. We heard that someone had stolen the generator from the morgue at the hospital! At the end of day 4 the water stopped and that was it for 3 days. They got it going again for 1 day but they tried to steel the diesel that was running the generator which was running the pump, couldn’t get it so sabotaged the water system! No water again for another 3 days. You know, we had no power for 10 days following Irma and we were getting really grumpy with it. BUT this time, with no water! no power was easy!! It is the water which is critical and communication, that is essential also, we can live without power. Funny how it is all relative. We were collecting water from the roof to use to flush the toilet and try to hand wash clothes, we were showering in the driveway with the hose from the roof water. We are using paper plates so don’t have to do dishes.

Again the garbage has not been collected, lots of rotten food and everything is so wet, perfect breeding ground for flies and mosquitos, they are rampant, it is hideous. A doctor has said that there will disease outbreaks soon. And again we are struggling with the heat, no power, no water, no ice! We heard that they used all the spare parts to fix the power after Irma, so no way to fix the power this time and Vieques is feeling like the “forgotten Island” sitting at the bottom of the “help” list.(Vieques was still running on generators 12 months later!)

We remained on Vieques for 16 days post-Maria. We were evacuated by the US State Department together with the NZ Embassy in Washington. Its a great story of relief and sadness, of nations pulling together and people helping people. To be published soon!

The Story Of The Hurricane – Part 2

Published on October 16, 2019February 18, 2025 by kiwisdofly2Leave a comment

Post Irma / Pre Maria

Written September 2017. We survived! Friday 0630, about 48 hours after She started. We have no power so no internet and no news of the outside world. We have no idea how the rest of the islands got on or where she is up to now. We did hear that they were expecting land fall in the states at the weekend?? Today it is so hard to believe that this ever happened. Calm sea and no wind! She came and went! And it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were expecting!

There is not too much structural damage as far as we can see, mostly trees down and powerlines. The word on the street is that the hurricane hit Tortola and bounced north, so her path changed at the last minute before it got to us so that is why we were so well off. So we didn’t end up with the full force – thank goodness! As I said, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, but it was still quite frightening at times.

Our local little sunset bar “Al’s” has been damaged. They lost all the roofing material and some Windows. They have a lot of water inside, a big clean up for them. Not sure when they will be open again. The supermarket was open yesterday! But the ferries are not running so they will run out of food pretty soon.
Kim called in yesterday to see if we were ok. He took us in his car to the ice plant and we bought a couple of bags of ice. We stocked up on food and meals before the hurricane but with no power the fridge is now warm. The freezer is a bit cooler and we have put one bag in each of the freezers, so at least it can act a bit like a fridge. We loaded the downstairs one with stuff we would need later and haven’t opened it so it will be staying a bit more ” frozen” but the one upstairs is all defrosted. So we are eating our way through the freezer. It is working really well, we will have enough food for the next 3/4 days providing we can keep it relatively cool. We have no idea how long the power will be off. Some say 3 weeks and some think it will be back on fairly quickly.

The Ice plant. It was closed down one day because a fight broke out in the line, tempers are frayed!

No electricity. It is always surprising how much we rely on power! We are quite lost without the internet. I hate not being able to talk to the girls on a regular basis and I know Mum has been very worried, we still have use of our cell phone, but there is only limited credit so we are being careful. The phone and laptops will run out of powers soon and then we won’t even be able to send a txt. Hopefully power will be restored sooner rather than later. And gee we miss the fans! It is so hot sleeping without the fan going. There doesn’t seem to be much wind at the moment either. It is so calm just now which is making sleeping almost impossible. We did hear, before the power went off, that there is another tropical storm coming right behind Irma (Jose). There is no sign of it just now though.
So we are fine! We survived! We will just carry on with our usual routine as much as we can. Hop on our bikes this morning and go walk the dogs, keep eating the freezer empty!

Cash only on the island at the moment, no power – no EFTPOS/Credit card machines, no ATM! So the bank gets robbed! We were lucky, we had cash – stashed in the freezer – its defrosted now though LOL!

Day 5. Still no power. Every day we have been hunting for ice and WiFi! Tsunami bar has a huge generator so here we sit! We are ok, getting quite frustrated with lack of information but that is really minimal to what other islands have had to deal with. Jose is tracking a long way from us now, so is not a threat!

Day 7 now with no power. We have managed perfectly with our food provisions and haven’t had to throw much out. We have come to the end of our fresh food and will be starting on the canned goods. The supermarket has been open right through so we can buy more. Having said that though it has been pretty slim pickings in there, no fresh milk or bread, eggs, fresh produce. We have had some great support from the friends and neighbours. We have been driven up to the ice plant a couple of times and our lovely neighbour Alberto, has dropped us in a bag of ice twice now,!! So we have been able to keep things cool enough not to spoil. Everyone is in the same boat. Some homes have generators but not many. Everyone is looking to keep food cool and are coming to the end of what they have in stock. The ferry service started again a couple of days ago so things are looking up, the supermarket is slowly being restocked.

We still don’t know the extent of the devastation on our neighbouring islands and USA main land. No power, no internet! Everyone is heading to the Tsunami Bar, the one spot to re charge their devices and get contact with the outside world. We saw a clip of when Irma hit Florida, it looked terrible! We are all so incredible thankful for what we DIDN’T get. We do have a battery powered radio, but it is ALL in Spanish- not much use to us who can only say hello and goodbye, and 2 beers please!

Petrol is like gold! People are starting to run out of fuel but they did send a couple of tankers on a special ferry 2 days ago. But it’s amazing, the 3 gas stations seem to take turns at running out of fuel and not being able to run their generators. The queues for petrol must be 40 – 50 cars long.

The rubbish is collecting on the streets, the garbage truck hasn’t been for 2 weeks now, but I think that is probably just a Vieques problem rather than hurricane fall out. But there seems to be so much of it around. I imagine there has been a lot of spoilt food around.
It is great to be able to be in contact again, even though it is in small snippets, compulsory trip to the pub each afternoon! Oh well……..

It is very dark! No lights around us. It gets dark about 7 / 7:30, we are powering through the candles but usually go to bed not long after dark. Oh boy we just can’t wait to get the fans going again, it has been very still for the last few days and the humidity is probably still 100%.

Electricity is restored 10 days post Irma. Just in time for the information to come through that another category 5 hurricane is heading our way – Maria. She will be here in 3 days. Easy! We have done this before, we know the drill, water, food, candles, grab bag etc etc. How bad can it be?? Look at Irma – We’ve got this!!! WRONG!

Part 3 – the most terrifying night on my life – next week!

The Story Of The Hurricane – Part 1

Published on October 5, 2019February 18, 2025 by kiwisdofly23 Comments

Chris and I spent 2017 house sitting, 5 months in Puerto Rico and 5 months in South East Asia. House sitting exposes you to many wonderful experiences, the people, the food, cultures, language etc etc Weather is one we don’t think of so much. We have never felt so hot in Puerto Rico for example and later this year we will possibly have snow as we are currently in Europe. It is all part of the experience of traveling around our amazing planet and you have to embrace all of the above. But, we have experienced a severe weather episode, not 1 but 2 hurricanes back to back – Irma and Maria, September 2017 – Puerto Rico. So while we get ourselves settled into life in France, I would like to share our Hurricane story. Pre Irma, Post Irma and Pre Maria, Post Maria then Our Evacuation, I hope you enjoy our story.

Pre-Irma

Vieques, beautiful Island to the East of Puerto Rico Main Island. 34km X 5km.

Written early September 2017. We are good, getting our heads around preparation for Hurricane Irma who is destined to cross our path in a couple of days. The Island is in preparation mode, the ferry service is being suspended on Tuesday and all the ferries will be taken around to San Juan for safe keeping, the airport will probably close as well. We don’t really know what we are in for. We are being advised by locals to be prepared, get food provisions in and collect/buy lots of water. The power will more than likely be turned off, before it gets cut off by the weather – this is less damaging to the system apparently. The supermarkets get stocked up on a Tuesday and often by Monday it is slim pickings in there anyway, so with this mass “buy lots of food” there will be nothing on the shelves. Also heard though, that they start giving frozen/refrigerated stuff away, like ice cream etc, if it looks like the power will go out. Happy days!!

We may get a bit of water in through our back door so we are going to make some sand bags up and Chris is going to dig a trench in preparation. At the moment they don’t know for sure if it will hit us directly. Some of the predicted paths show her coming right at us, some have her tracking North. Even if she tracks north, we will still get some impact being on the fringes. We will be ok here. we are in a really solid house. We know enough people here now too that if it is total devastation, we have places to go and people to take us there. We are certainly not alone.

We have a water collection drum from the roof for the garden, so that will be great. We have stocked up the freezer. We have gas cooking both upstairs and downstairs in the apartment. Our gas tanks are a bit exposed, if they blow away we have the downstairs ones as back up, we have loads of candles and vodka! We think we are ready. So funny though, we are off to the beach today! hard to believe what is coming.

Facebook post:
So we are in the path of hurricane Irma. She will hit in about 18 hours. Cat 5, record wind speed recorded with Jose right up Irma’s bum. 185 mph winds gusting to 225. We are well prepared – as much as hurricane virgins can be! Got the food, water, candles, torches, grab bag for evacuation. Our house is very secure, the power will be turned off, maybe even as soon as tonight. I will try to keep updated here for as long as I can. Xxx

During. This Hurricane was predicted as cat5, and they said it is the biggest in the area ever. So we were very concerned, in fact we are really scared. We have done lot of prep, we had several days to get prepared, so we feel we were in a good place. The wind started at 4am and got stronger and stronger. At times the wind is gusting so strong it makes us hold our breath… stop…. And wait… BREATH!! but it really isn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We have no power, so no news on what is actually happening out there. We have lots of food, we even have a roast chicken cooking, bottle of wine, candle light – its only 3:30 pm!! Giving us something to do to keep our minds off the howling wind outside. We cooked the roast in the oven downstairs as it has a manual temp dial. The one upstairs is all electric controls. We can manually light the hob, but not the oven. So Chris is the brave one! Up and down, in the rain, trying to stay on his feet, carrying trays of roast dinner! Late afternoon, she was getting a bit less intensity, or maybe we were just getting used the sound of the wind. We have been watching the palm trees and they are now blowing in the opposite direction – she must be passing! Blowing East, then North then West. When she swung around to the north we got water in the front doors and were on mop up duty for about an hour then she swung to the west and hammered the other side. We knew then that she was on her way! It was really fascinating seeing the change of wind direction as she progressed.

The house across from us has lost their veranda roof, it is still just hanging there from one corner, very lucky it didn’t go flying. There is no one home which is just as well, one of the uprights went through a window and they will have a lot of weather in there being on the west side.

So that was a Cat 5 hurricane – or was it? We didn’t know it at the time but there was worse to come, and…… is it the hurricane or the aftermath that is more dangerous?

Part 2 – Post Irma and Pre Maria – Next Week

#travel #hurricanemaria #hurricaneirma #survive #cat5 #vieques #puertorico #beautifulisland #hot #beach #survive