The Path of Hurricane Ike
CNN is reporting that Hurricane Ike has struck the Turks & Caicos Islands as a Category 4 hurricane:
The Turks and Caicos Islands were battered by “fierce winds” as Ike passed Sunday morning, but the storm seemed tamer by sunrise.
“The worst is over, it appears,” said Audley Astwood, a reporter at a radio station in Grand Turk. “The damage is pretty huge.”
Peering out a window, he reported during a Sunday phone interview that “it looks very dismal outside.”
Emergency officials estimated 50 percent of the homes on Grand Turk have been destroyed or have lost roofs, but the full extent of the damage is not known, Astwood said.
He said his own home lost its roof, and his family was huddled in a bathroom.
We have friends who are living on Provo in the Turks & Caicos. A few hours before the hurricane struck we received an email from them telling us that their phone (and DSL) were down so they hadn’t been sending or receiving emails. They’d taken their computer to a location that did have Internet connectivity to get a quick note out. After boarding up and sandbagging their house they were going to higher ground to wait out the storm surge.
One never knows what to do in circumstances like this. We’re tempted to call but don’t want to further tie up the phone system which no doubt is needed for emergency services. Like everybody else we just sit, wait, hope, and pray.
Update
As the storm closes in on Cuba reports of the extent of damage in the Turks & Caicos are beginning to come in:
In South Caicos, a fishing-dependent island of 1,500 people, most homes were damaged, the airport was under water, power will be out for weeks, and every single boat was swept away despite being towed ashore for safety, Minister of Natural Resorces Piper Hanchell said.
Tourism chairman Wayne Garland was text-messaging with two people in Grand Turk during the height of the storm. “They were literally in their bathroom because their roofs were gone,” he said. “Eventually they were rescued.”
In Providenciales, there was flooding, roof damage and downed power lines but no injuries, he said.
“Fortunately, we were able to evacuate most of the people in low-lying areas to shelters, so thankfully I don’t expect to have any injuries. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that that’s the case,” Garland said as he left to assess the damage.
The Honourary Jamaican Consul reports from Provo:
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands: New reports have come in from Allan Hutchinson, Honourary Jamaican Consul to the Turks and Caicos Islands, with regard to the damage sustained from Hurricane Ike’s impact.
Even though there is substantial flooding and roof damage in Providenciales, and the island has been stripped of a large amount of vegetation, Hutchinson said, “It could have been worse.â€
According to the report, the Providenciales International Airport will hopefully re-open Sunday night.
In his report, Hutchinson says there has been no communication with Grand Turk from Providenciales, therefore the condition of the airport there is currently unknown or whether it will re-open anytime soon.
