Interesting weather at last

Tropical storm 'Delta' passed through here last night, 6 dead and plenty
of damage, the other islands suffered much worse with a higher death toll.

50 Africans picked the wrong time for a midnight crossing across the 60
mile stretch, 5 died. One guy also picked the wrong time to repair his
roof and was blown away.

I had been warned about a storm approaching but took it with a pinch of
salt, normally they don't compete with a windy day back home but I knew
this one was different as soon as I left the apartment for work. As soon
as I opened the door I was hit with the warmth, which during the day
(averaging 20c) is normal enough but the winter nights now are cooler and
have even been known to drop to single figures on a severe winters night
last year :)

The storm was only approaching then and walking was no worse than your
average drunk, that was until I reached a corner at the end of our street
and was hit with the rush of sand. The nearest comparison back home would
be hailstones but at least you can still see. Objects were hitting me and
passing by at some height horizontally up the length of the street, all I
needed was to be speared by a sign post on my way to work and I was too
blinded to avoid anything.

By the time I got to our bar (run by a mother and daughter) the mother was
on edge and the storm hadn't even hit yet. I fished the sand from my ears
and told her daughter to feed her shots which eventually worked. The son
is also here on holiday with his girlfriend which helped as he was able to
joke and distract her.

When it did hit the sustained winds were approx' 70 odd mph nothing too
frightening on paper but the gusts were furious and the noise incredible.
The lids on the air conditioning units were torn off the center's roof
which then sounded like a formula one car, signposts were bent in two and
it seemed anything not nailed down (and much that was) was making it's way
down the street.

When the gusts really picked up it came in howling explosions that made us
all retreat to safe end of the bar which had a concrete roof, the far
corner (which is shown in the photos) was now beginning to shake so
violently we knew it couldn't last for long at that rate, the false
ceiling was now lifting completely and we could hear heavy objects
smashing against the roof.

Then an almighty bang the roof in the far corner completely lifted and the
paneling underneath came crashing down to the floor. The roof was actually
an electric shutter system almost like a heavy metal venetian blind, it
has long since been used and had been covered with heavy flexible tar
sheeting and hiding it all underneath was the wood paneling. With the tar
sheeting off the top of the shutters they were now completely exposed to
the storm and one by one the wind was slapping them around with such force
it was ripping them off like something from a horror movie, the mum was by
now a jelly in the corner.

Now the windowed walls had lost their strength and the whole corner was in
danger of ending up in the street (or toward us) worse still an expensive
large bartype television was stuck on a box stand in that corner too and
if the windows went it was going with them. We tried several times to
rescue it but we had to clear the route of the wood that was hanging from
the ceiling to carry it clear, not a chance each attempt was met with more
explosions and me and the son bolting back to the safe area in very
nervous laughter.

I had already text'd my Belfast flatmate to come down and give a hand, he
said he would be down in ten minutes but to be honest I think he was glad
to be out of the apartment as he thought the patio doors in the apartment
were on their way into the swimming pool. We had already pulled down the
outside double door shutter and barricaded the door against it as the wind
was trying to smash them too, so we were more than a little nervous at
pulling up the shutter to let him in maybe taking the whole roof off with
the subsequent wind tunnel.

As it happened by the time he got there it had backed off a little and we
could pull it up enough for him to crawl under, we seized the opportunity
to dive at the tv and with a strap from one of the other tv's we managed
to shore up the by now fragile wall. We then sat at the other end of the
bar drinking, staring and chatting.

The mother now feeling the benefits of the alcohol commented on the fact
we still had electricity, she had no longer finished her sentence when
boom the lights went, luckily we had plenty of candles and plenty more
drink. To top it off the son had the foresight to bring some munchies so
we pulled the sofas round and settled down until the storm had passed.

The next day we heard rumours of worse to come so I headed down to the bar
to see if we could repair anything, the place was like a war zone, the
governmental had called a national emergency, the police (and some
soldiers) were out in force and the local schools were closed. (Gran
Canaria had 10 dead) We phoned our local Spanish joiner who was round
within the hour, we decided we could not repair it in time and the whole
roof had to come down.

For the moment we could only cover it with tarpaulin which though we knew
it wouldn't last but hoped it would provide some protection against the
next night. Rumours of a Monsoon are rife, which I thought a bit strange
being this side of Africa but I checked the net anyway and all seems dandy
so far.

These photos were taken this morning by a local net news site.

http://tinypic.com/i1cjuw.jpg



I'd like to point out I was wearing a pair of shorts, the wind was picking
up again and it was pissing it down, it was fine when I left the house. At
this point I was walking on the roof between ours and the trashed bar next
door.

The Spanish guy asked me was I cold in my shorts, I replied "Soy Irlandes"
(I'm Irish) He laughed and said that explains that, I hope he was making a
reference to a cold country???

http://tinypic.com/i1cm4p.jpg


The bar next door from inside.

http://tinypic.com/i1cm7r.jpg

The place is pretty exposed so we're all going to spend another night in
the bar, I've just got hold of 'The House of Wax' which i've been told is
good, topical too.


Duck


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