Each year, from January until about April, the Indian Ocean is host to a handful of hurricanes. None of them came
too close while I was here last year, but this year Reunion was already hit dead on in the first few days of January by Hurricane Dumile, which cut off power and water for a week and destroyed some roads and bridges. (I missed that one.) Last week, Hurricane Felleng headed our way.
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| The big island you see on the left is Madagascar. We are to the right, the tiny little yellow X, about to get hit with the outer circle of Felleng. |
Waiting for a hurricane reminded me a lot of waiting for a snowstorm or a tornado growing up in Michigan. Everyone keeps checking the weather online to see if the hurricane is coming closer. At night, kids are praying for an orange alert which means schools are closed...and adults are praying for a red alert which means everyone stays inside their house. Days before it gets to that point though, everyone stocks up on water, food, batteries, flashlights and candles.
On Wednesday, the waves hitting the island were so large, they were coming up over the barriers and onto the main road that goes around the island, smacking cars and knocking stuff over. They announced the road would be closed by 2:00pm, so at noon, Richard and I (and everyone else) made our getaway out of St. Denis and back to our friend's house in La Possession where we would stay for the next three hurricane days.
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| Yet another reason I'm terrified to drive here...what are you supposed to do if a giant wave hits you!? |
So then for the rest of the week, it alternated between wind and rain so hard I thought the house was going to come down, and nothing. The eye never got too close to us, so we just dealt with the outer hurricane levels, which apparently is child's play to island people. So schools continued, work continued...but with the road still closed, Richard and Cristian (our gracious host) got to work from home a little bit. Cristian is dating my friend Julie, and she was stranded with us too, so we had a cool little hurricane party. We had cute family dinners, drank some wine, and stayed out of the weather's way.
Today it's back to sunny and HOT. I almost miss Felleng!!
