State of emergency in Vitaria!

On friday, as the east coast of the states braced itself for the arrival of hurricane Irene, the humdrum, sleepy existence of our small district, Vitaria, was also thrown into turmoil, when strong swells brought 8m waves crashing directly at our driveway! It started in the evening, we'd just finished clearing up the evening meal when the sound of the surf started to really amp up, by 8:30 pm the waves had started coming up over the beach and onto the road outside our driveway.....

Viriamu surveys the surf as it breaks at the top of our beach

Fortunately it didn't come much further than our front gate. Nevertheless we were the focus of attention for the emergency services on the island. We had the police, the mayor of Avera, the fire service, the public works people and municipal police all gathered outside our front door at some point during the night, not to mention a municipal minibus, in the event that our guests needed to be evacuated!!!! Fortunately we avoided catastrophe......

The waves drenched the road bringing with them a whole pile of ironwood tree needles

Remarkably our guests slept on, oblivious of the whole situation, but I definitely feel reassured that we're in good hands here! The island has clearly been working on their emergency action plan, maybe since our brush with cyclone Oli last year. By 6:30am on saturday morning the swell had died down a fair bit.

 

The road was closed off with diggers and workmen out front cleaning up the mess, which strangely seemed to be entirely isolated to a 20m stretch out front of our place (Hmmmmn, we're starting to wonder whether it might not be something we did!).

Fortunately, we have a barrier of ironwood trees planted along the beachfront facing our house, they clearly saved our garden from a good dousing in saltwater..........

The ironwood trees along our beach, with exposed roots thanks to the waves

Our beach is now very clean and very smooth! Good thing we managed to salvage the hammock! What can you say, island life is often quiet, but never dull!

Tsunami? part 2

There was a huge earthquake in Chile over the weekend and yesterday morning we were on tsunami red alert - but just to let all of you know we are all OK, it really didn't end up as too much for us, thankfully! We're currently in Tahiti for the salon de tourisme........but I will blog more soon! It was a lot less scary than Oli....but I am beginning to wonder what is happening here in the Pacific at the moment!

News from Tubuai

We've heard from the family in Tubuai, the telephone lines are back up. They were very fortunate that their home was not badly damaged by the cyclone, though the island must be quite a mess, (pictures and an account of the devastation, in french). But islanders are resilient folks, cyclones are not that common, but they are part of life here. Polynesians have often had to start over in the face of disaster, Austral islanders in particular, are known for their hardiness and grit. It's estimated that the cyclone did 12 million euros worth of damage to the island. But people are already starting to clean, rebuild, repair. Life will go on.....

Bilan - Oli's aftermath

The cyclone has past, and is now starting to dissipate, it is now just a severe tropical storm. Rapa was not badly effected and the red alert has been lifted. Tubuai sustained the worst damage. 150 homes were totally or partially destroyed by the cyclone, over 600 of the 2000 odd inhabitants are homeless. The electricity, fresh water and telecommunications infrastructures have been very badly damaged, the government and army are mobilizing to assist with the clean-up, and restore normality. At least 23 houses were destroyed in Raivavae as well, but there was not the same magnitude of destruction as in Tubuai, the cyclone passed about 100km from Raivavae, so they also got off lightly. In Tahiti there are collections of food and clothing to be sent to Tubuai and Raivavae by boat. Our whole island is mobilized today, busy cleaning up the debris, (Viriamu's busy in the garden hauling coconut fronds around) and getting back to life as normal. But I still have this dull feeling of dread in my stomach, I've spent the morning answering e-mails and blogging, still listening in to the radio. I just can't believe how lucky we were. I think that the fact that we have a young fringing reef, with a very shallow lagoon must have protected us from the worst of the sea. The waves broke onto the reef and were dissipated in the lagoon. The areas worst effected on our island were the areas where the reef is broken or absent, the waves break almost onto the coast. In Raivavae and Tubuai there is a well developed lagoon, sufficiently deep to carry the waves, people live on the motus, or at the waters' edge, inside the lagoon, and so would have been much more vulnerable to the sea. And what can you do with 200km/h winds........

(precariously placed homes, at the water's edge, opposite the quay in Mataura, Tubuai)

We have, as yet, no news of my brother-in-law and his family, I'm sure they are alive, but not sure how their home will have held up...........Oli is not over yet, for them.

Still Here!

Cyclone Oli passed Rurutu last night, there were strong winds, high seas and heavy rain, but we were safely shut in our house, with lovely thick walls between us and the gale. Now this morning the sun is shining and the red alert is lifted, so we've had a drive around to survey the damage, no big disaster to report, thankfully. We've also just been re-connected to the net and to the electric grid......hurrah!

There's a lot of debris to pick up and a lot of flattened banana palms, but it could have been so much worse. There were 6-8m high waves and in places where the reef is close the coast, it must have been quite scary.

(The Tuhaa Pae our cargo ship waits off the coast of Rurutu, in the swell, it's
been 'stuck' at sea since wednesday, not able to return to Tahiti and now
waiting to go to Tubuai to assist if necessary)

On the northeast coast the road was inundated in several places, bringing a lot of rocks and sand with it! The primary school lost its gates, and the police station might also have got some of the worst of it.

But really, no serious injuries to report, so we all feel very relieved today. A lot of the families in our district spent a tense night in a nearby cave, as they always have, in such situations.

So all in all, more fear than damage here in Rurutu, however, Tubuai got a direct hit, with gusts of wind over 200km/h. Again, from first reports, there don't appear to be any major casualties, but the islands electricity pylons have been flattened and there's apparently a lot of trees fallen across the roads. Our hearts and minds now go out to the people of Rapa, awaiting the cyclone.....

We're deeply touched by the messages we've received from friends and guests, from all over the world, in the last few hours. It's wonderful to know that you are out there thinking of us....

(Here we are in our cyclone shelter...the morning after)

It's 15h00 and we're bracing for the worst. The waves are crashing in regularly now, and the sea is inching up the beach, the rain is heavy and steady, we're expecting the electricity to be cut anytime soon, so we'll probably be offline until tomorrow, at least.

It's now 9h00 and we're still waiting for the worst. At the moment the weather is eerily calm, and while the sea is definitely a bit rough, nothing really remarkable yet. But it's coming.......In Tahiti the worst appears to be over, and from the radio we hear the reports......the roads are pretty much impassable at the moment, and there are widespread power cuts, but aside from that there are few real caualties, though a lot of people will have to repair their homes, about three hundred homes in Bora Bora sustained serious storm damage. We're sitting tight and hoping for the best! A large portion of the population of Vitaria (our district) has headed to the nearby cave to shelter.....we're sticking it out here. We're most concerned about the sea, we're only around 5m above sea level. A falling coconut palm could also do us some damage, but we have a pretty sturdy house and a second floor, so we feel as safe as is possible in a cyclone red alert zone.

Red Alert!

Oli's trajectory has changed, he's coming for us sooner and faster than expected. The Meteo's crisis center called us at 01h00, to let us know that we should expect the first signs in the next few hours and not tomorrow evening as expected yesterday. Specifically we are expecting waves of between 6-8m from about 6h00, so enough to result in some flooding, we'll see. We're preparing ourselves and getting prepared to sit tight for the next 24hrs or so. Not sure whether we'll have electricity/internet, but at the moment all is well here in Rurutu and as far as we can tell the damage from the cyclone has been mostly cosmetic in the Society Islands. We'll try to keep you up to date as we can. I know the cyclone has made French national news.

The ministerial visit that never was!

Matotea was ready..... the village of Avera was ready........

The commune had been feverishly filling in potholes and decking the roads with coconut palm fronds, but in the end the minister canceled, due to Oli, who has decided to come and visit, bringing >100km/h winds and 6m swells to the leeward islands.

So, at 8h00 this morning the commune were out feverishly pulling down all the decorations, in anticipation of the cyclone-force winds. At the moment he's doing somewhere off the coast of Maupiti, this evening Tahiti and Moorea are on red alert. Inhabitants have been advised to stay home from 18h00 and driving is forbidden after 21h00 this evening! After that he heads our way, we're still only on orange alert right now, but we're expected to go red by tomorrow morning. So there's a meeting at the mayor's office tomorrow morning to plan for the worst, which is expected to occur on thursday evening/friday, meanwhile our heart's go out to those already in the hurricane zone.......

orange alert!

Oli is officially a cyclone, and it may even attain hurricane status (winds over 64 knots, ~120 km/h), before tailing off, toward the end of the week. It's current trajectory shouldn't worry us too much, but you never know. We'll brace ourselves to experience some strong winds in the next 48h.