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ST CROIX 2024 DAY 10
Day 10: Continuing to ride the storm out and the unknown...
BOOM! Whistle....pour....BAM! Howl...crack, POW! Roar...thunk. Geeze. There would be no sleep tonight. Still no electric, pitch black inside and outside and the sound....ugh. Constantly hearing things hit the roof. They were loud. Then we hear a loud obnoxious sound coming from right behind our house by our bedroom. It was the neighbors generator that lived on the hill directly behind our place. It would continue all night.
We had made sure we had our phones fully charged before the storm hit, however...we would find there was no internet service. So, no way of knowing how far the eye of the storm was at this point or when it would be moving out.
It was getting EXTREMELY hot in the house. Almost unbearable. Several times I attempted to crack the windows. We had windows all around the house that had screens and then a crank to open the slats in the house. They were like wooden slats (not hurricane slats) so they didn't actually close tight all the way when closed. Once they were open, there was actually NO air flow at all even though the wind was so forcefully blowing. I think the direction it was blowing wasn't working with the side of the house we were on. It just did not help.
I took multiple rounds of Melatonin to attempt to get some type of rest/sleep tonight but the sounds were just so loud that it wasn't working at all. We started hearing a sound that seemed like water was coming in the house. We shined our phone lights toward the door and water was actually shooting in the house FROM THE DOOR HANDLE! Like through the key hole. What the heck? It was so weird. Then we would discover water running down the inside of the door, coming from the window seals at the top of the door. There was a puddle now forming on the floor and it was growing by the minute. Even it was loud splashing every time the water dripped. I ran to get our beach towels to throw down to try to help sop up as much as we could. My only thoughts now was the pool right outside that was only around 2' away from our door. What happens when it over flows? Is it going to flow into our rooms? We only had a very small lip at the door. However, it never flowed into our room thank goodness. There was a drain over by the wall around the pool for water to drain if it over flows. It seemed to be doing the job.
We would ride out the rest of the night repeating all steps above and adding in (or should I say removing) that it was just so hot that at some point I had to strip all my clothes off for some relief. Remember, it had been in the 90's all week and add being in a closed up house on top of that with no air flow. Whew! Very uncomfortable.
There was also a "new" sound that started. It was a very annoying sound. We weren't too sure what it was. (When morning hit, we would figure it out).
When daylight finally hit we could at least look out and access what was going on outside. It was still storming pretty bad and our bedroom was still leaking of course. But we were thankful we could at least see what was happening now.
Here's a short video looking out of our bedroom window of the storm and also the bedroom leaking:
At this point, we were able to open the windows around the house and at least let some air flowing in to cool things off. The sounds we were hearing during the middle of the night would come to light and we believe it was some very annoying frogs? They were right outside our window in the bathroom and by the front porch. Maybe they were upset that their home was flooded? (You can also hear the loud generator outside our window).
I sat around and read a book. There was no internet or electric so no tv or being able to check on the storm or flights. We were just stuck. The kids played games on their phones and the hubby was longing for a nice cup of coffee.
Eventually the rain stopped and we went outside to have a look around.
It would continue to rain off and on during the day. The bathrooms were starting to stink. Ok, we have to think primitive. I had thrown out our jugs of water. How can we flush them now? Wait, we still have pool water! I ran to the kitchen to get some bowls and we all started dipping them in the pool and filling up the back of the tanks. YES! We were able to flush the toilets now!
We were starting to get hungry as well. I told the hubby to pull the grill over to the door and I would just whip us up some french toast in a pan on the grill. It was still very windy out and still raining off and on.
As I scrambled the eggs, dipped our bread in it and prepared our food, the hubby would light the grill???? Wait, it wasn't lighting. He tried and tried and it just wasn't working. I thought maybe it was because it was so windy out. We decided to pull the grill into the house out of the wind. (This wasn't the first time we have pulled a grill into the house during a Tropical Storm...St Thomas...we did the same thing). Once we got it inside...it still would not light! It said it was still full and we had just used it the other day. What the heck! We tried and tried forever. It just wasn't going to work. We pulled the grill back outside. Now what? I just wasted a bunch of bread we could have used for sandwiches. Ugh! Note to self, never jump the gun.
Now I was smart before the storm hit. I had decided to put all the lunch meat and cheese into the freezer. Since the electric had been out for quite some time now I went to the freezer to see if the meat had made it through the night ok with no electric. It had thawed out and was the perfect temperature. We would make sandwiches with the rest of the bread we had left...which wasn't much after using most of it for the french toast that never happened. We were scavenging for food at this point. Everyone was hungry. There's one can of Vienna sausages left. Here's some crumbs of chips. We still have 2 end pieces of bread left. Here's a Honey Bun to share.
I continued to sit in front of the door with a breeze and read my book. The kids were bored. I wasn't quite sure what to do at this point. We eventually just decided to try to head out around 10:30am and see if we could get anywhere or if the roads were flooded or blocked. We also wanted to see if we could find any internet.
Walking outside our home...the hummingbirds were back.
There were a lot of brush all over the walkway and even a palm down. The hubby moved it up and off the walkway it was blocking and pushed it back onto the retaining wall above.
There was a tree that was completely bent over and stuck that way. It wasn't broken, just bent over from the forceful winds.
At the car we seen a few palms bent over and also the little toy car (fiat), that was up on jack stands we always parked beside, had lost the front hood of the car.
It left me wondering if something had fallen on our vehicle, like a tree, how does this work? Would we have to pay for it? I mean it's an act of nature. I was just glad nothing happened to ours other than a bunch of leaves stuck to it.
We made it up to the top of the hill to our place and just as we went over, we were able to get internet. Woo hoo! We sat there for awhile and I was checking our flights. I got a notification that it had been "delayed" until 6:12pm today. Wait, are they actually opening the airport today? Are we actually going to be able to get out of here? We were keeping our fingers and toes crossed that it just might happen. I also got a notice that they had Big Row front seats available for our flight. Eh, might as well put in a bid. I did the lowest possible ($25). I'm sure that when this storm hit, a lot of people probably cancelled or rescheduled their flights. I thought we had a good shot at it. (They make you actually put in your purchase information to pay for it...just in case you win).
We decided to head out onto the road to see if anything was open and to assess if there was any damage. I mean we were on the other side of the island, we might not even be able to get to the airport even if it did open. We were not the only ones out checking out the roads:
There were multiple trees blown over into the roads. Some were hard to see around to see if any other traffic was coming.
Some bushes were whipped so hard the roots came up and they were leaning on top of each other:
We headed to the gas station because we still needed to refill our gas tank. It was closed. The next was open however they were running on a generator and it was cash only. Oh my. Now what? I never keep cash on me. I guess we would just have to wait until later to fill up.
There were a lot of roads that were flooded and you had to go real slow in the water in hopes that you wouldn't sink into a pond not knowing how deep it was. You also had to take into consideration all the pot holes and sink holes that you would no longer be able to tell were there because of the water filling them up. Just a little humor posted on the St Croix facebook page. I find it very fitting for this island:
The only people out on the road was a TON of jeeps....and us in a SUV. LOL Yes, we are explorers. Yes, we live on the edge.
After awhile, we decided to turn around and head back. For the most part, it looked like the roads were ok to drive on...just slowly as you trek through the water and around the fallen trees (it did get worse in some areas but I handed the hubby my phone to take pictures of the area as we drove by and...got next to nothing from him...even after I kept reminding him to take pictures).
Headed back up to our home, the hill had cacti lining the road. For the most part, they had all lost their heads and was laying in the road. Remember the song you sang as a kid with the dandelions? "Momma had a baby and her head popped off" as you flicked the head of it off. No? Well, maybe my family just taught me weird songs. But, that is what was going on in my head as we drove by.
They were just everywhere. I tried to dodge each one in hopes that I wouldn't pop a tire because that's just the kind of luck we have.
We stopped at the top of the hill for one last internet connection for everyone and then continued on to the dark ages of primitive living.
There was some really big waves out there now.
Back at the house of no electric, we decided to finish the rest of our packing. I made the executive decision for us to go ahead and leave the house and head toward the airport area some time between 12noon and 1pm. I wanted plenty enough time to get there...just in case we couldn't and the area was worse on that side of the island. At least we knew that we would be able to head back to the house to stay for another night if that was the case. We had a long drive ahead of us to the other side of the island.
We were able to fill our gas tank up this time around thank goodness. I didn't want to pay the outrageous amounts the rental companies charge you if you don't come back with a full tank.
Then we were on a hunt for some food. Every place we went by wasn't open but there were several places running on generators. We finally came to a Wendy's that was open. The lines in the drive-thru were ridiculously long and wrapped around the building, down the parking lot of the grocery store beside it and out onto the main road. We decided to park and just go in. It wasn't much better inside but there was hope now that we would be able to get some food in our bellies. I know Karl was wilting away at this point.
We stood in line FOREVER but eventually we were able to get some food. They had the restaurant closed down. They had taken a beating as well and there was a lot of leaking going on and water inside they were trying to dry out. We just headed to our vehicle to eat...in the a/c.
After taking our time to eat, we were in no hurry with plenty of time to kill, we headed toward the airport. There were a lot of BIG trees down on their "highway" (a somewhat small section on the island that is 4 lanes and 55mph) and some you really had to slow down to maneuver around them because it took up all the lanes). I had put in that we would return our rental by 3pm and it was getting close to that. We had driven 455 miles during this trip according to the odometer in/out they took. That's a lot of driving on the left side of the road if you ask me and not one incident of mess ups. I'm a pro at this I tell ya!
Once we checked in, the guy at Avis told us to drive the vehicle over to the airport and he would follow us and pick it up. That was super nice of him since we wouldn't have to drag our luggage all the way over there.
The airport looked pretty vacant. There were a few cars coming and going but not many people around.
We sat outside for awhile. I figured it was like any other airport where you couldn't check your luggage in until a certain time before a flight. I got a notification that my Big Seat bid had been accepted. Yippee!
Our flight was originally scheduled for 4:15pm and was now delayed until 6:15pm. While we were still sitting outside I received another notification that now our flights were delayed again until 7:15pm. It was to be a 3 hour and 3 minute flight to Ft Lauderdale and our connecting flight was to leave at 9:11pm. Ok, now there's a problem. It is not computing. What now? We are going to miss our connecting flight home! Ugh!
I decided to go up to the outside Spirit desk to inquire. They confirmed, our flight would not make it and they would need to modify our flights. They told us they would fly us to FLL and put us up in a hotel (of our choice on their app) AND give us a meal voucher as well. Ok, this wasn't sounding that bad I guess.
Then they let us know...the next available flight wasn't until 9:45....PM!!!! Oh lordy have mercy as my grandmother used to say. Well, what can you do right? I guess it's just an extended vacation. Ya gotta look on the bright side.
We headed into the airport at 4pm. Again, it wasn't that crowded inside either.
We went off into an area that had high tables with seats and a charging port. It was perfect to hang out in while we waited...until it wasn't. It eventually became a "kid zone" with a family of around 5 kids that were so unruly running around, screaming, playing tag, riding each others backs and being thrown off and just plain annoying as the mother did absolutely nothing to control them. They would run into people and keep going. I have never allowed any of my 4 children to act like this. I just don't understand. We all put our earbuds in to control the sound. Karl showed me how to put them on a setting to drown out the surrounding sounds (noise cancellation). It worked for the most part but you could still hear them. That's how loud they were screaming.
I was really glad we had stopped to get food earlier but they did have a Snack Bar inside beside the area we were waiting in and you could get drinks.
As the time went on, more people arrived, but it still wasn't too bad.
I got on the Spirit link that was sent to my phone to try to find us a hotel. We knew we wanted to pick a place with the most "benefits". We needed a shuttle from the airport to the hotel. We wanted a place within walking distance to some food. We wanted a place with a pool since we would be there most of tomorrow as well. We needed a way to entertain ourselves.
I decided on the Hampton Inn-Airport North/Cruise Port location on 12th Ave. The shuttle ran until midnight, it had a pool and there was food within walking distance. Perfect! It did give us the option to book 1 or 2 rooms. I only booked 1 but had wished we had booked 2 instead with connecting rooms. It would have made for more room and 2 showers. Oh well. I learned my lesson on that one...just in case there is ever a "next" time.
They also sent me a link to our meal vouchers. They gave us $144!!! Ok, we can definitely eat on that! However, it would need to be used at the hotel or the airport. Hmmm.
So even though we had made it through the storm, I was continuing to monitor it. There was a site that showed the path, what time it hit, and how forceful the winds were. Now just a little education on a hurricane. It is considered to be a Tropical Storm if the winds are between 39-73mph. Once the winds hit 74mph, it's considered a Category 1 hurricane. I had looked at it earlier and it showed that as it passed by Buck Island, the winds were 74mph at once. So, basically it WAS a hurricane as it passed by us. (Also, remember our house was located right in front of Buck Island on that side of the island).
At the time I looked at it on the app, it had passed by us and the winds were 60mph heading toward the British Virgin Islands. It did show winds that day with gusts up to 80mph.
Now I don't know what a "normal" airport day is like, I imagine there was a lot of cancellations and rebooking's, but everyone always asks "how soon should I go to the airport before departure:
Well, it was time for our departure and we walked out to the plane. We were sad to be leaving this beautiful island but yet READY TO GO!
Well that sure cleared out the airport! I don't think anyone was left inside.
I was happy to see our luggage was making it on the plane. You can spot them anywhere.
Up onto the plane we went!
Yep, we snagged those Big Front Seats and got situated.
I have to say, the Big Front Seats are great as far as the room they provide. However, there were drawbacks to them. You are up front with the stewards who would continuously bang every drawer and cabinet up there during the entire flight. There was also a very bright light they kept on that was in my face the entire time. Next time, the kids get this side. LOL You also can't put anything under your seat and have to put your bag in the overhead. I get in my bag MULTIPLE times during a flight. That's why I carry a bag instead of a carry on. Oh well.
Then off we went...now notice there are plenty of lights on the island. I'm not sure if most of these are businesses and people with generators or not because it appeared as if the electric had been restored. However, following the facebook group, they were still complaining they were without electric over a week later!!!
It had been a long time since we had anything to eat and the stewards were up there cooking something that looked and smelled like ramen noodles. So, the hubby ordered one of their "Snack" boxes. I guess they had two different boxes to pick from but the hubby thought it came with everything in the picture. It did not.
We watched downloaded movies on our phones, because there was no sleeping/napping with all this noise up front, and eventually arrived in FLL. Boy was it hot out still. I don't know what I was expecting but whew!
Then off to our hotel we went. The shuttle picked us up rather quickly (within 15 minutes) and we arrived at our hotel and checked in. Since we are a Hilton member, they said they would give us the "extended stay" deal and we didn't have to check out early in the morning and could stay in our room until 1pm the next day. Perfect! Better than nothing. We scheduled our shuttle for the next day at 6pm. I wanted to make sure we arrived at the airport in plenty of time. I hate being late to anything.
Our room was sufficient and clean.
We were all starving so we went down to ask the receptionist where the closest place to eat was. That was one thing I didn't plan very well...picking a hotel with a restaurant on site. Oops. Then off we went. Into the darkness...It looked like something you would come across during Halloween right?
We walked over to Slackers Bar & Grill. I order the Gyro with sweet potato fries and the hubby said "same". Karl had the 1/2 pound cheeseburger with onion rings and Sakari had a side Caesar salad.
I have to say that the service was not that great. Our server seemed confused most of the time, coming back to repeat orders, didn't refill drinks and we waited forever on our meals to come out. Then when they did, everyone had their meal placed in front of them and the hubby had an empty plate placed in front of him. Ummmmm.....ok. Now we were really confused. After flagging down the waitress and asking why there is an empty plate placed in front of the hubby she replied "Oh, I thought you two were sharing". Um, sharing??? No, how are we going to share a Gyro? The sweet potato fries maybe but the Gyro? She went back to put his order in. More time spent waiting of course and we had finished eating. The poor hubby.
We walked back to the hotel with our bellies full, time for a shower, then off to bed. It was such a long boring day and we were so tired. 💤
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