So after days of waiting for Bertha to arrive, she is finally here and we have lost our storm virginity. This is our first real experience of tropical storm/hurricane. I can only compare it to whiteout conditions in a blizzard for a couple hours except it is 75 degrees farenheit outside and instead of snow, its tons of rain and high wind whipping all around. Saw lots of tree branches and palm tree leaves all over the road on my way home from work and tons of bikes on their sides along Church street that had been knocked over by the winds but no real property damage. The worst is still supposed to be a bit later tonite and hopefully we don't lose our power. In the meantime, here is an extract from the Bermuda Sun website to update everyone on how things are going here. ( We are home and safe so not to worry!)
The days leading up to the storm truly were like the cliche of the calm before the storm. We had terrific weather all weekend and the only signs of the impending storm were the high seas and that the tree frogs stopped singing about 2 days ago. Our neighbours dog was acting a bit weird the last few days, constantly sniffing the air but other than that, nothing until early this morning when woke up to howling winds and torrential rain. Had hoped it was bad enough to get the day off work but called the emergency hotline and essentially was directed to go to work! (Did get to leave early though!) Here is an extract off the Bermuda Suns website of an article that was posted a few hours ago.
7/14/2008 4:09:00 PM
Causeway closes as storm lashes island
MONDAY JULY 14, 4.50pm:
The Causeway is closed and will remain shut to traffic until at least 7pm. The decision was announced at literally the last minute - 4.55pm - as commuters were already beginning to make their way home.
A brief statement from the Cabinet Office read: "In the interest of public safety, due to unexpected high winds associated with the Tropical Storm Bertha a decision has been made by Government to close the Causeway immediately for a period of about two hours.
"The public will be advised immediately once the Causeway opens which is expected to be around 7pm or thereafter - until the severe winds have abated.
"The Government apologises for any inconvenience causes."
The statement was received by the Bermuda Sun at 4.55pm, after repeated calls throughout the afternoon
The timing of the decision is likely to cause massive disruption to people living in the east end.
The storm had been tracked for almost a week and as early as 3.30pm today forecasters had upgraded its status to a hurricane watch.
Meanwhile thousands of homes were without power and all flights and ferries were cancelled as gusts of up to 65 knots hit the island.
The storm brought down power lines causing outages across the island.
At the height of the storm just after 3pm BELCO said up to 1,000 homes were without electricity an estimate which they later revised to more than 4,000.
And forecasters adjusted their analysis of the storm and issued a 'hurricane alert' saying that winds could vary between 45 and 65 knots.
Experts say it is a slow-moving weather system that could still become a hurricane. They anticipate the worst part of the storm could not be over till after 7pm tonight
BELCO's Linda Smith-Wilson said that more homes could be affected as the storm continued throughout the afternoon.
But she said work crews were out fixing the faults and at present the situation was 'manageable' and in most cases power was being restored within 90 minutes.
"Crews have been out since 12.43 am today. We can't really project how bad it is going to be until the winds die down but at the moment it looks manageable."
She said Mangrove Bay in Somerset, Happy Valley in Pembroke and Forest Hills in Warwick were the worst affected areas.
"There seem to be some areas that have gone off and back on again all day," she added.
"Some of it is lines coming down or branches hitting the lines and shorting them out."
Meanwhile all today's flights to and from Bermuda were cancelled.
The 6:20pm British Airways flight and 8:40pm American Airlines flight were cancelled late in the afternoon with the other 12 flights already cancelled in the morning.
All ferries had been cancelled but buses were still running.
Garbage collection was not completed today. The West route will be completed tomorrow with the East route postponed until Wednesday.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Quick Update& snapshots
Not a lot of time for the blog these days as out enjoying the glorious weather. Ocean is so warm these days its like swimming in the bathtub and think the golf clubs will be put away after tomorrow until the end of September as we are having a hard time walking 18 holes in this humidity. Seems like most of the members gave up the sport back in June when the season officially ended on June 8th.
Gas prices have surpassed 8.00 a gallon ( 2.05 a litre) and the price of electricity continues to be amongst the highest in the world at over 21 cents per kilowatt hour before the fuel surcharge which brings the price up an additional 50+%. Still its a small price to pay for living in one of the most beautiful spots in the world.
Finally started to build a hurricane kit today as the locals think its going to be a very active season and Bertha might well be headed our way although its still too soon to tell what effect if any she will have on us late next week. We got off very lucky last year with no tropical storm or hurricane activity to speak of. Not likely to get that lucky two years in a row though based on what the Bermudians are saying, (Wit he kind of winter and spring we had plus the very hot conditions we are experiencing already this summer, everyone is saying that this is going to be a very active hurricane season.) Last years effort to build a hurricane kit was pretty weak as all we ended up buying was 6 litres of bottled water which we drank last fall. Today we bought a Coleman stove and a cooler so if nothing else,we can go camping during Cup Match. Camping in Bermuda is a hilarious sight to those of us who have actually camped in the wilds of Canada. Here in Bermuda it means pitching a tent on the side of the road across from the airport and bringing along every convenience known to man. I have seen pictures of tents decked out with a real dining room table, big screen TV.
We enjoyed another Canada Day celebration at Chaplins and watched fireworks last night from our balcony as the Americans celebrated the 4th of July.
Thought would share some snapshots that hubby has taken over the last couple weeks. We just got a great new Nikon DSL camera and have been taking tons of shots to try it out. The Newport to Bermuda race was at the end of June and we had a great time checking out all the yachts and enjoying the festivities.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Gas hits $7.72 a gallon on Island
Extracted from the Royal Gazette (www.theroyalgazette.com)
By Tari Trott
The cost of a gallon of gas is nearing the $8 mark – as business leaders warn increases in oil costs will be passed onto the consumer. Oil prices have been rocketing with record prices being recorded, earlier this week the price of a barrel of oil reached $135. In Bermuda this week gasoline increased by 11.3 cents per litre, diesel by 10.7 cents per litre and kerosene by 9.5 cents per litre. As a result the maximum retail prices that can be displayed on the pumps for gasoline is $2.04 per litre ($7.72 a gallon in America), 196.90 cents per litre for diesel and 171.10 cents per litre for kerosene.
Chamber of Commerce President Mr. Phillip Barnett told The Royal Gazette: "Obviously the affect we will feel in Bermuda is going to be that much more profound. "This is Mr. Barnett added: "Our concern is the price will effect the cost of electricity. Segments like the water sports division will be very concerned because this will impact their profitability. "Also, our offshore charter fishermen will see a significant impact and I think we can only hope that the talk of (increasing fuel prices) and us being in a bubble and the prices will eventually decrease — there's some validity to that. Every person in Bermuda will be affected by this because fuel increases touch on everything because we ship virtually everything in."
Environmentalist Stuart Hayward, also the head of the Bermuda Environment and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) cautioned that the fuel price rise might have an impact on visitors. He explained: "Given that many US residents are curbing their holiday travel (driving) due to rising gas prices, Bermuda may well find our potential visitors cutting back also — which, if so, would decrease incoming foreign exchange.
Our driving habits, particularly of larger two and four-wheeled vehicles at faster speeds, will increase our foreign expenditures (for vehicles, repair parts, and gas). So at the 'macro level' we have less money coming in combined with more money going out, with no increase in derived value to show for our trouble." And he predicted that residents are likely to resort to using their bicycles for transport as a cost-cutting measure.
According to the New York Times oil prices leapt above $135 a barrel in overnight trading on Thursday, a new record that underscored the growing pressures that runaway energy prices are placing on some of the biggest names in global industry. Prices fell back in the course of the day, the paper reported, closing at $130.81 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline prices are nearing $4 a gallon in the United States, partly as a result of a 39 percent rise in the price of New York oil futures since the start of the year. Prices have more than quadrupled since 2003.
American Airlines said on Wednesday that it would slash flights and begin charging passengers to check bags, part of a company effort to cut costs in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices. It is also charging $15 for the first piece of luggage, although that only affects internal flights.
Oil futures spent months dancing around the $100 a barrel. But in the last two months, prices have taken off, gaining nearly $20 a barrel in May alone.
By Tari Trott
The cost of a gallon of gas is nearing the $8 mark – as business leaders warn increases in oil costs will be passed onto the consumer. Oil prices have been rocketing with record prices being recorded, earlier this week the price of a barrel of oil reached $135. In Bermuda this week gasoline increased by 11.3 cents per litre, diesel by 10.7 cents per litre and kerosene by 9.5 cents per litre. As a result the maximum retail prices that can be displayed on the pumps for gasoline is $2.04 per litre ($7.72 a gallon in America), 196.90 cents per litre for diesel and 171.10 cents per litre for kerosene.
Chamber of Commerce President Mr. Phillip Barnett told The Royal Gazette: "Obviously the affect we will feel in Bermuda is going to be that much more profound. "This is Mr. Barnett added: "Our concern is the price will effect the cost of electricity. Segments like the water sports division will be very concerned because this will impact their profitability. "Also, our offshore charter fishermen will see a significant impact and I think we can only hope that the talk of (increasing fuel prices) and us being in a bubble and the prices will eventually decrease — there's some validity to that. Every person in Bermuda will be affected by this because fuel increases touch on everything because we ship virtually everything in."
Environmentalist Stuart Hayward, also the head of the Bermuda Environment and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) cautioned that the fuel price rise might have an impact on visitors. He explained: "Given that many US residents are curbing their holiday travel (driving) due to rising gas prices, Bermuda may well find our potential visitors cutting back also — which, if so, would decrease incoming foreign exchange.
Our driving habits, particularly of larger two and four-wheeled vehicles at faster speeds, will increase our foreign expenditures (for vehicles, repair parts, and gas). So at the 'macro level' we have less money coming in combined with more money going out, with no increase in derived value to show for our trouble." And he predicted that residents are likely to resort to using their bicycles for transport as a cost-cutting measure.
According to the New York Times oil prices leapt above $135 a barrel in overnight trading on Thursday, a new record that underscored the growing pressures that runaway energy prices are placing on some of the biggest names in global industry. Prices fell back in the course of the day, the paper reported, closing at $130.81 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline prices are nearing $4 a gallon in the United States, partly as a result of a 39 percent rise in the price of New York oil futures since the start of the year. Prices have more than quadrupled since 2003.
American Airlines said on Wednesday that it would slash flights and begin charging passengers to check bags, part of a company effort to cut costs in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices. It is also charging $15 for the first piece of luggage, although that only affects internal flights.
Oil futures spent months dancing around the $100 a barrel. But in the last two months, prices have taken off, gaining nearly $20 a barrel in May alone.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Lousy Weather this week!
Torrential downpour causes flooding misery
( Article is taken from the Bermuda Sun)
The island took a battering as torrential downpours caused flash flooding. The freak rain storm on Monday resulted in scores of reports of flooding to the emergency services. Motorcycles could be seen floating as water overflowed into people's homes and businesses. Six feet of water was also reported at a classroom in Warwick Academy. Severe flooding affected many of the island's roads with police advising motorists not to drive through areas where water had accumulated. Roads badly affected by flooding included Tee Street in Devonshire, Dundonald Street in Hamilton, and South Shore Road, near Demco florist in Devonshire. Parts of Harbour Road were closed to traffic in order to avoid people stalling their vehicles and causing further road congestion. And Woodlands Road was blocked off after a creek overflowed. This was the second torrential downpour in just a week after a severe thunder storm crossed the island last Tuesday evening.
Getting his feet wet: A motorist rolls up his pants and wades through the water to get to his car in Dutton Lane, near Bernard Park. *Photo by Mark Kennedy
Need a ride? Michael Cabral who works at Redlaser and a worker from COE, both located on Bakery Lane in Pembroke, used an inflatable boat to get to work. *Photo by Chris Ingham
Driving hazard: Driving around the island became difficult as several low lying areas, including roads near Butterfield and Vallis, were affected by flooding on Monday. *Photo by Mark Kennedy
While our friends in Calgary are basking in unseasonably warm weather especially for Victoria Day weekend when it almost always snows! [80 F/ 27C ] we have been having a ton of rain lately ( 281.7mm or just over 11 inches in the last month)
I am getting tired of this crazy weather we are having lately! Doesn't help that we have such a bad case of island fever right now but thankfully we are getting away next week and heading off to Boston for a big city hit. (Its been a bit over 3 months since I was last off and while we love living here for the most part, we always feel like we are ready to snap if we don't get out of here for at least a week every quarter.)
This last week has seen some wicked "cold fronts" blow through here bringing the rain and high winds that are the after effects of the tornados in the states. Temperatures are still in the 70's but the winds have been gusting to gale force, so spring so far has been a pretty mixed bag.
( Article is taken from the Bermuda Sun)
The island took a battering as torrential downpours caused flash flooding. The freak rain storm on Monday resulted in scores of reports of flooding to the emergency services. Motorcycles could be seen floating as water overflowed into people's homes and businesses. Six feet of water was also reported at a classroom in Warwick Academy. Severe flooding affected many of the island's roads with police advising motorists not to drive through areas where water had accumulated. Roads badly affected by flooding included Tee Street in Devonshire, Dundonald Street in Hamilton, and South Shore Road, near Demco florist in Devonshire. Parts of Harbour Road were closed to traffic in order to avoid people stalling their vehicles and causing further road congestion. And Woodlands Road was blocked off after a creek overflowed. This was the second torrential downpour in just a week after a severe thunder storm crossed the island last Tuesday evening.
Getting his feet wet: A motorist rolls up his pants and wades through the water to get to his car in Dutton Lane, near Bernard Park. *Photo by Mark Kennedy
Need a ride? Michael Cabral who works at Redlaser and a worker from COE, both located on Bakery Lane in Pembroke, used an inflatable boat to get to work. *Photo by Chris Ingham
Driving hazard: Driving around the island became difficult as several low lying areas, including roads near Butterfield and Vallis, were affected by flooding on Monday. *Photo by Mark Kennedy
While our friends in Calgary are basking in unseasonably warm weather especially for Victoria Day weekend when it almost always snows! [80 F/ 27C ] we have been having a ton of rain lately ( 281.7mm or just over 11 inches in the last month)
I am getting tired of this crazy weather we are having lately! Doesn't help that we have such a bad case of island fever right now but thankfully we are getting away next week and heading off to Boston for a big city hit. (Its been a bit over 3 months since I was last off and while we love living here for the most part, we always feel like we are ready to snap if we don't get out of here for at least a week every quarter.)
This last week has seen some wicked "cold fronts" blow through here bringing the rain and high winds that are the after effects of the tornados in the states. Temperatures are still in the 70's but the winds have been gusting to gale force, so spring so far has been a pretty mixed bag.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A Bit of humour
This originally appeared on the bermudasucks.com website which despite its name I refer to for tips on where to eat or shop (consumer reports section). I actually used it to do research on Bermuda before making the decision to come here as in amongst the venting and rants, there is some useful information. (The best source of comprehensive information for those of you who are looking at moving to Bermuda is bermuda-online.org)
Thought this was funny and since I have not posted anything for a while thought I would throw this out there - Intend to start posting more around the middle of March. Have just been too busy with work lately as we are currently very short staffed which is what reminded me about this item in the first place.
Bermuda Job Ads Translated
*Competitive Salary* - We remain competitive by paying less than our competitors.
*Join Our Fast Paced Company* - We have no time to train you.
*Casual Work Atmosphere" - We don't pay enough to expect that you will dress up.
*Must be Deadline Oriented* - You will be six months behind schedule on your first day.
*Some Overtime Required* - Some time each night, some time each weekend.
*Duties will Vary* - Anyone in the office can boss you around.
*Must have an Eye for Detail*- We have no quality control.
*Seeking Candidates with a Wide Variety of Experience*- You will need to replace three people who just left.
*Problem Solving Skills a Must* - You are walking into a company in perpetual chaos. Haven't heard a word from anyone out there. Your first task is to find out what is going on.
*Requires Team Leadership Skills* - You will have the responsibilities of a manager without the pay or respect.
*Good Communication Skills* - Management communicates poorly, so you have to figure out what they want and do it
Thought this was funny and since I have not posted anything for a while thought I would throw this out there - Intend to start posting more around the middle of March. Have just been too busy with work lately as we are currently very short staffed which is what reminded me about this item in the first place.
Bermuda Job Ads Translated
*Competitive Salary* - We remain competitive by paying less than our competitors.
*Join Our Fast Paced Company* - We have no time to train you.
*Casual Work Atmosphere" - We don't pay enough to expect that you will dress up.
*Must be Deadline Oriented* - You will be six months behind schedule on your first day.
*Some Overtime Required* - Some time each night, some time each weekend.
*Duties will Vary* - Anyone in the office can boss you around.
*Must have an Eye for Detail*- We have no quality control.
*Seeking Candidates with a Wide Variety of Experience*- You will need to replace three people who just left.
*Problem Solving Skills a Must* - You are walking into a company in perpetual chaos. Haven't heard a word from anyone out there. Your first task is to find out what is going on.
*Requires Team Leadership Skills* - You will have the responsibilities of a manager without the pay or respect.
*Good Communication Skills* - Management communicates poorly, so you have to figure out what they want and do it
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