Batten down the hatches!!

On the stroke of midnight tonight my scooter will turn into an Aston Martin and those hundreds of pesky tree frogs that keep me awake at night will turn into a line-up of hotties at my door, or maybe not, wrong story! No, at the stroke of night Bermuda moves into.... drum roll... hurricane season. Gasp! and the sense of impending danger lasts right until the end of November.


Being a tiny of island in the middle of the Atlantic the chance of a storm striking a bull's eye on us are relatively small BUT they do. Research conducted by the Bermuda Weather Service suggests the island should anticipate a devastating storm every six to seven years. EEEEEKKKK!!! The last hurricane to hit Bermuda was Fabian in September 2003, oh gawd that's seven years.

However after a warm-up 2009 season, I'm ready to play ball, although maybe not three strikes, that would be really unlucky. The closest we came last year was Hurricane Bill which passed within 200 miles of the island overnight on 21st August. It was still pretty scary but by the time it reached us it had been downgraded to a category two storm. For us ladies of the house, it wasn't such a hardship.  Once we had secured the house, we settled down with a case of wine and a pile of dvds and of course chocolate as if the worst happen we'll need that to keep up the blood sugar levels right?!


The day after definitely had a eeriness about it, the winds had eased by the waves were still crashing the shoreline all day, branches were strewn everywhere and scooters lay on their sides all over the road. Some crazy cats even took advantage of the extreme weather conditions for spot of kite surfing. Why not? Rather them than me...





Each year during storm season, from the supermarkets, insurance companies, the Government, landlords, you name it, there's hurricane preparedness tips cycloning the island. Being a gal from England, getting ready for a hurricane was not the norm so much of this advice was completely new to me. Some of it seemed fairly straight forward like stocking on on tinned food, bottled water, torches etc. etc., others you might not think of like stocking up on cash in case ATMs are inoperable and having a full tank of petrol in case you need to drive to safety once the storm is over. But then some were pitched completely out of left field like opening the windows on the leeward side of the house (opposite side to the approach of the storm) to stop air pressure building up in your house and causing an explosion. This one seems to have far too much room for backfiring, pardon the pun. For starters from my brief run in with Billy Boy, I know that it sounds like the storm is coming from all around! 


The most recent forecast from the reputable Colorado Stare University predicts an above-average eight hurricanes, four of them major, for the Atlantic this year. So to coin a common phrase in these parts its all about preparing for the worst and hoping for the best and during the approach cross everything, finger, toes and windows with tape.