Wilma: the aftermath

Talofa everyone! We slept in this morning to find the weather fairly calm and we had thought it had past us completely, until we turned the radio on in the car and got better information. Here's the quote of the day. "American Samoa: the only place on earth right now that is in the eye of a cyclone." Here's a pic of where it was and what it looked like when we woke up.


Within an hour or so, things picked up and trees started blowing around like long-cut, soggy broccoli. We learned on the radio that Wilma would be heading northwest after pausing over us for a bit. Seemed odd since it was coming from the north when we went to sleep, but not unexpected. Once cyclones get around Samoa, it appears they constantly course correct until they hit us. I'm speaking from the experience of one decent cyclone season here, but that makes me an expert, right? Here's the historical and forecasted track as of now.

Notice the sharp right turn it took in order to pass straight over our island. I can't get over that. And then another turn right after it passed over us. I wouldn't be surprised if we woke up tomorrow and we're in the eye again!

The power went out sometime last night and was off all day, along with water, until around 6pm. Just in time for dinner and baths. So all in all, not too inconvenient or dangerous, except church was canceled and that's always a bummer. Anyway, we hope it doesn't hit Tonga too hard on it's way south.

Wiiiiiiiiiillmaaaaaaaaa!!!

Here we go again. We are currently in the depths of cyclone season. Here we have tropical cyclone Wilma. She, like most cyclones that come around Samoa, has been changing her mind regarding where to go. She was forecasted to make a smooth arc to the south below us but changed yesterday afternoon to go above us. Here is the current forecast.

Yup, Wilma should be passing almost right over us Jan 23 at 06:00 Zulu. Let's see... carry the one, correct for time zone, backpedal a bit and that's 19:00 American Samoa time Jan 22. That's this evening. Well, we can only hope the forecast holds for 50 knot winds and gusts to 70 knots. That won't be too bad. As for now, it looks like a calm and normal day and we're having pancakes for breakfast.