Sub-Tropical Storm Olga

An awning ripped off the ocean side of one of the villas down by the beach and thrown over the building to the street side.

Jazz looks out at a stormy grey ocean during a brief lull in the rain this morning.

Hurricane season officially ended six weeks ago but it didn't seem like it last night. Sub-tropical Storm Olga went by and was much worse than Hurricane Dean this summer. As I write this at 6:20 pm local (AST) time, we've had power back on less than an hour for the first time since about 2:00 am. It has (almost) stopped raining for the first time all day. (Note: power for us also means a phone; without it, we had no lights OR phone OR internet...just FYI for those who tried to call or email.) And after nearly two weeks of steady, constant 20-30 mph winds 24 hours a day, the wind is calm.

It's not surprising that Olga was worse. She ripped past the north side of the island (which happens to be where we live), due east to due west with the storm center less than 70 miles off the coast. Dean was 250 miles south of here and we had the whole island between us and the storm.

The good news is we are all alright. It was a grey, gloomy, wet day in paradise but - no snow or ice. Elaine ran some errands to places where they had power and I mostly laid about with the dogs and read. The all-day rain has been pretty gentle (unlike the storm rain last night) so there really hasn't been much risk of a flood. But - we've been watching.

Now the storm is over the Dominican Republic and mostly away from us. Here's hoping for a quiet, peaceful night.