Tomas Comes & Goes

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Today, Barbados was the first target of the tropical wave turned tropical storm turned hurricane, Tomas, a fiesty storm with a lot of spunk to share. Without warning, we were hit with brutal winds and rain. Tomas was reported as a strong tropical wave on Friday evening and by 11pm the same night, Barbados was under hurricane warning. How did that happen?

I went to bed one night to some overcast skies and a little rain and I was woken up by a text from my cousin celebrating that she didn't have to do her music exam today because the island's on lockdown. Wait. What? On lockdown? What happened overnight?! I'm a pretty heavy sleeper so I really didn't hear the gusts of winds and heavy showers that went on while I was living happily in dreamland. Oh, and then I realised that electricity had left us.

Photo by: Kreigg Yearwood

We don't have a battery operated radio at home but I was lucky to have charged up my battery last night! So that was my radio for the day. Listening in on 94.7 FM, I heard of all the damages and atrocities happening around the island by, at the time, tropical storm Tomas. Things were pretty light in my area but it sounded to me that St. John had the biggest burden. Roofs went flying, pailings went flying, trees started falling and taking some power lines down with them. One lady even reported that a power line in front her home was on fire. And a few people lost their homes to the strong gusts that wound up to hurricane force winds in some parts of the island. Poor souls. Lucky for them, there are people around who are willing to lend some homeless families shelter.

Photo by: Stefon Griffith

Tropical storm Tomas was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane by 11 a.m. this morning. Err? Yeah, that's right. A tropical wave became a hurricane in much less than 24 hours (I'd say about 15 hours). And Barbados was in the centre of it all. Slightly unusual, no?

Waking up at 5:40 a.m. and being without electricity for the following 11 hours, I've had a rather uneventful day and some difficulty studying for my upcoming exam on Thursday. At the moment, it's still a bit windy and rainfall has been heavily on and off all afternoon. With the reinstatement of my electricity, came the re-establisment of my internet and so, here I am! Unfortunately, many parts of the island won't be so lucky as they'll be without electricity over the next few days as the Barbados Light & Power works hard to fix the fallen poles and broken lines.

Who'll be in line for Tomas' terror next?

Feel free to comment and share your Tomas experience here. =)