Omar came and went. Here in the Caribbean, few tourists venture to the region during the summer for fear of a hurricane. Although true that they do occur, here in Anguilla it is not that frequent. I personally enjoy summer, the water is nice and warm and the flamboyant trees bloom in summer. It's a little hotter in summer but not unbearably hot, never as hot as Baltimore gets in summer!
Back to Omar. This storm snuck up on us from the west, making it unusual. My husband put 11 sheets of plywood up on our windows on our house on Crocus Hill, since we sit on a hill overlooking Crocus Bay, on the west side of the island. Miss Jimmy's house has 19 windows which we did not cover at all. The storm started around midnight, and peaked at 4 AM. It was said to be a catagory 3 storm, although I have experienced much worse storms in St. Thomas, this storm moved fast, did not have alot of rain with it and mostly damaged trees, with the exception of blowing the boats in Sandy Ground Harbor onto the shore. Miss Jimmy's house came through unscathed, with a few fairly large trees down in the yard. Mother Nature's pruning! She likes to do things in a big way! We never lost phone lines, the electric was off for only 3 days, there were no injuries, and after the weekend of cleaning up, our island was back to normal.
We are now looking forward to fall and the return of the tourists, which start around our first event of the fall, Anguilla Jazz Festival, in early November. Come on down!!!