Here comes Omar

Posted by John

Just getting ready to wake the kids for school this morning when the phone rang. It was Mrs. Gadd, the principal at Manor School saying school was canceled today because of the approaching tropical depression 15, which by tomorrow should be Tropical Storm Omar. The governor canceled public schools, so the private schools followed suit.

Lots and lots of rain expected. We already had two inches yesterday. On Puerto Rico and St. Thomas there's fear of flooding. Less so here, it's flatter and bigger than STT, but still, a LOT of rain – maybe more than a foot – and it's not like the roads here have a lot of storm drains – or any storm drains. When we get rain there's always streams running down the sides of the roads.

Omar (to be) is southwest of here, around what are called the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao,) but is expected to move northeast, which they almost never do. If you're watching the Weather Channel (which is now my favorite station) if they mention Puerto Rico, you're talking the Virgin Islands too, we're among the smallish little islands you can see to the southeast and east of PR. So we'll be keeping a wary eye on that for the next two days.

Just a reminder that, even though it's no longer September and most of the tropical weather news has dropped off, hurricane season runs through Nov. 1 so you can't let your guard down.

Max and Millie, on the other hand, were delighted to be told to stay in bed because there's no school today or tomorrow. We'll see about Thursday.

jb