Hurricane Igor

Igor was the largest ever (by diameter) hurricane ever to form in the Atlantic and measured an incredible 633 miles and it visited Bermuda this last weekend. The tropical storm winds started around Sunday lunchtime, we had already lost power but thankfully got it back again around 2pm and kept it until 10pm, which allowed us to keep internet and radio access.

By midnight the storm was very powerful with gusts around 90 mph. We are very exposed in the parish of Southampton on the South Shore (if you know the island) probably about 100ft from the ocean, and also slightly elevated.

Our house was boarded by our landlord, but they were noticably nervous when they visited us the day before. The house, unlike a lot in Bermuda is new and only 3 years old and had never witnessed a hurricane. The last serious one being Fabian in 2003 that killed 4 people and caused $300m of damage.

Around 2am on Monday morning the eye passed about 40 miles wide of the island but we got a good slap by the eyewall, which is considered to be the most powerful part of the storm.

We were holed up in a front bedroom (the ocean is at back of the house) and with our 10-month old asleep, we sat with a flashlight and listened to the howling winds, it sounded as if the longest steam train in the world was rushing past our windows and it will take me a long time to forget that noise.

But just as we thought the worst had passed, around 4am, one of wooden boards blew off a set of patio doors in the living room and with the doors bowing we both held on for dear life to stop them blowing out. It was quite scary, especially with the wooden board doing somersaults around the patio in swirling winds.

The body of the storm had become elongated and we were on the end of one final Igor backlash that lasted about an hour.

It was quite a night and you have to remember (see below) that the day before my surgeon I had a knee operation and my surgeon had told me to rest my knee, with it constantly up for 3-4 days!!

In the morning after just a couple of hours of shut-eye we surveyed our place in daylight and we had a lot of water enter the house which got under some wooden floorboards, the patio doors we were hanging onto last night for dear life need replacing, the balcony upstairs is damaged and quite a few fences and outside lights were obliterated. 6 of the 16 wooden boards screwed into the masonry had come an the garden, which like so much of Bermuda is normally a vivid green is sparse and bare with many of the shrubs sadly burnt by the salt water.

The island got away with it, fortunately there were no casualties. However there was a fair bit of damage such as to the capital Hamilton’s main ferry terminal but most of it appears superficial although some areas were badly flooded including the historical town of St George’s. A lot of the South Shore beaches will take a while to recover after suffering erosion due to the huge waves. We went along to Elbow Beach, where the Weather Channel was reporting from, and the steps leading down to the beach had disappeared and the restaurants were closed.

The strongest measured wind gust was 103 mph and one can only imagine what a Category 4 or 5 storm would be like (Igor was officially a Cat 1). Personally I never want to find out and having ticked the box will take the family and bugger off island at the slightest sign of another one.

The power came back on Monday night, which was a real blessing because the taps had run dry and it was starting to become a pain in the arse. 4,000 homes on the island are still without power. Quite an experience!

Thank you to everyone (and there was a lot of you) that sent their best wishes to us over the past weekend. It was much appreciated.