Well of course there has to be a hurricane while I am here...

I survived

Hurricane Wilma 2011!

In this satellite pic taken at 6AM today, I am inside the little black circle in the middle of all the red. YIKES!!

Frankly, the irony of the fact that I am here in American Samoa to study Posttraumatic Growth, after the island experienced the trauma of the tsunami last year, only to experience a hurricane myself today, is not lost on me.

As a matter of fact I just may take my own posttraumatic survey later ;o)

Early this morning, I experienced my first a hurricane. Yep, a hurricane!! Hurricane Wilma to be exact. It was crazy!!!!! We had over 24 hours of warning, though, and Ma'O didn't seem to be too concerned at first, and since he was born here I wasn't worried. Then the storm reports kept coming in and then he decided maybe he should board up the house. Ali had graver concerns, and got out their 72 hour kits. Realizing that my 72 hour kit is in the trunk of my car and not conveniently available, I began to pack up my backpack with some stuff to survive a day or so in case we had to be evacuated.

We each had Top Ramen, a couple granola bars, two bottles of water, and a can of tuna (yes, tuna,which if you know me you know that I would have had to be starving to eat, but I figured I could give it to someone else, or maybe trade it like with a sack lunch in school), along with a change of clothes, a book, a flashlight, my camera, my toothbrush, mosquito spray, a hat, a towel, and misc wipes, Band-Aids and medicines (thanks in part to what was left of Diane's thoughtful travel kit.) I was packed and ready, so I decided to go to bed and try to get some rest.

At about 4:00AM I woke up to hear the wind outside my window. It was crazy, blowing so hard that it sounded like more of a scream than wind. The electricity had gone out so it was pitch black in my room and I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I took an extra pillow and put it on the bed between the window and myself just in case the window was blown in or broken by flying branches or debris. I thought the pillow might protect me from being hit by blowing shards of glass, and as a testament to the fact that I can sleep through almost anything, I went back to sleep.

At about 6:15 I think the storm was the at it's peak, and a huge tree fell right outside of my window. I woke up for that, but I couldn't see anything. It was so loud that I thought maybe the storage shed that was right next to the tree, had blown away, but it was so dark I couldn't tell what had happened. By 9 AM the storm stopped and it was super quiet outside. I looked out my window and saw the tree, and went out into the living room to see what my host and hostess (Ma'O, and Ali) were doing. It was quiet outside, too quiet, kind of creepily quiet. The leaves of the trees weren't even moving, and the rain had stopped. I realized that we must be in "the eye of the storm." I was right, and according to the radio there was going to be 3 hours "in the eye", then the storm would continue. So I decided to go out exploring a little. The damage was mostly all to the trees. Many banana palms and bread fruit trees were broken in half, and branches, bread fruit, mangoes, and coconuts were everywhere.

When I returned home, we all sat on the porch for a bit, and right on cue, at 12:30 it started blowing again and raining like crazy.

I got a few pictures of the second half of the storm, during the daylight from the porch before it got really bad, although I don't think the second hit was quite as bad as the first.

It wasn't too scary, well maybe a little the night before when it was soooooo dark, and sooooo loud. I have seen lots of monsoon storms in Arizona, but even the worst of those was nothing in comparison to this!

This evening after the warnings had expired, the electricity was back on, and I had notified my family that I was fine, I went out exploring with Sister Webb, from the mission home next door.

While the home I am staying in was beautifully boarded up with painted plywood perfectly fitted to the large ocean facing windows,

many homes used what they could get their hands on, and most had various things nailed across their windows. We saw corrugated steel, doors, signs, misc wood scraps, and chicken wire. Necessity is after all, the mother of invention.

On the way home from our walk, Sister Webb and I were caught in a sudden rain shower. A common experience for me here, and I have been quite wet on numerous occasions! Yet, as you can see from the bad bathroom mirror pic, that I may be wet, but I am fine, and gratefully unscathed, with the exception of a very, very bad hair day!