Hurricane Ivan - Part 6

I was up early on Monday morning. Very early. I think it was around 4:00 am. I took the flashlight and went around to the front of the house on the balcony. I didn’t need it to see that the waves were even bigger. I had to hang on to the rail for support because the winds had intensified during the night. Since I really couldn’t see very much, I checked on Ivan’s progress on the computer and went back to bed.

By 6:30 am, it was light enough to see across the street. It was a heart numbing sight. The ocean had risen up even more and the waves were even bigger. The sound of the waves crashing was incredible. They were cresting and breaking slightly out from shore and the tremendous surge of foam was what was coming towards us at full speed. It was already ripping out the bushes along the shoreline and rolling huge boulders with it. I have no idea where they came from They were not on our beach prior to this. As far out to sea as I could see, the waves were rolling, cresting and breaking. It was like one of those shows on Discovery or PBS where an oil tanker has to be rescued because of the high seas washing over it. The waves were so high that the wind was blowing the tops off before they crested. My mind went numb as I watched. I went back to our little safe room and suggested again that we may want to revisit the subject of getting off the island. I was met with the same resistance. My fear and resentment hung in the air all day.

I had seen the pictures and read the accounts of Ivan passing over the Granadas and was very, very worried and scared about what it was going to do to us. Throughout the day the street in front of us was crowded with people. They arrived by foot, on motor scooters and in cars. They were here to watch this magnificent show of waves that nobody could remember seeing before. When Gilbert hit, it was in the dead of night and nobody expected it so all people saw was the devastation afterwards.

Possibly due to our location right in front of the ocean, we had visitors galore that day. It was amazing the amount of people that stopped by the house to see how we were doing. I was truly amazed at the level of caring our new friends showed. They were truly concerned about us and especially about me. They all know my fear of the water! Everybody reassured us that our house was very strong and that we would be fine. I appreciated the encouragement but did not believe them for a second! Even people we barely know more than to say hello to on the street stopped by! Most of them I didn’t even know knew where we live. It left me with a tremendously warm feeling that these people took time from their own hurricane preparations to soothe my nerves!