Tropical Storm Noel

[ipazmama]

Any news on conditions in Pedernales? We have not been able to reach our family member there.... Thanks in advance!

[DrChrisHE]

The wind is picking up again down in JD. Unfortunately, I did go out to take pix and really managed to hurt myself by slipping, and landing on the same arm that I broke surfing last Feb. It was stupid and I should know better to walk normally on the slick tiles around here but man it hurts. The waves were incredibly powerful and the palms were really swaying (several walls and been broken/demolished to to "palm-wrecking" damage.) So much of the new beach is gone that it is very sad (still better than before but one can see the number of feet of sand gone between this storm and Dean.) The way I view those sat photos, we could still be in for a lot more wind and rain. I think this is way more of a direct hit on Juan Dolio/Santo Domingo than the NOAA diagrams and models revealed. This level TS shouldn't have caused the damage to things if they were built to code (US codes--not even new European ones.)

[rubio_higuey]

Originally Posted by miloskorac

As for Maimon de Bonao, I remember that every time there is a heavy rain, the road from Piedra Blanca to Maimon, in one part, just gets washed out. And then you can not go to Cotui or Nagua. And then after, they are just fixing a little bit a road.

You cannot get to Nagua via Cotui. The bridge has been down for about a year now. You have to go via SFM.

[Robert]

Just received these via email, nasty!

[rubio_higuey]

We are on a nationwide blackout, as far as I heard on radio, since 2pm this afternoon. Only about 15% of population in the DR has power. source: Z 101 FM

There was one nationwide blackout last night at 0.50am

The lights came on and off today 3 times. After 2pm they didn´t come back yet. Higuey is in dark, and as a friend of mine who just return from SDQ tells me same for San Pendro and Romana.

My inversor is out of order since a few days ago the battery base fell down and damaged the batteries (hey, we are on 24 hour circuit, so why bother, no??? )

so I am at inet cafe.... it´s quite dark around the downtown.

As far as weather, here we had almost no winds (same as during the last hurricane...) and today only a light drizzle. Yesterday and DBY was pouring heavily.

Z 101 FM has pretty nice nationwide reports, listening on my cell, they say a bridge on Autopista Duarte over Rio Yuna is about to fall down.... where is this bridge?

As per radio reports, rain will continue throughout tomorrow, the soil is quite saturated with water and possibilities of floodings nationwide.

[Robert]

Originally Posted by Rocky

Excellent pix, tht.
Must be a heck of a good cellphone.
Wouldn't happen to be a Sony Ericsson, would it?

The ones I posted early from our street I took on my cell phone.
These days you can get up to 5MP cameras jammed in, mine has
3MP.

[Chirimoya]

Our power has been out for coming up to 24hrs now.

[jrzyguy]

just a quick note to say i have been thinking of ya'll (and my friends there) all day long. Only heard about the storm this morning when i got to work...there has been NO news coverage here about it in the papers...CNN finaly had something on their web site today.

I have a couple of good friends in Andreas with "iffy" housing cinderblocks and tin roof. At least it is cinderblocks and not wood.

Well..just wanted let ya'll know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers...hope the damage isnt too bad! (eeks..i have a friend vacationing in BC right now as well! Lizard!!! give us a trip report when you get back! I THINK she is still there right now.

[Rocky]

Originally Posted by rubio_higuey

We are on a nationwide blackout, as far as I heard on radio, since 2pm this afternoon. Only about 15% of population in the DR has power. source: Z 101 FM

I had no idea.
We've been fine here, with a couple of sporadic outages, but enough city power that my batteries are fully charged.

[Dolores]

This storm has been eiry. In Santo Domingo even the supermarkets shut down early. The generalized blackout means that street lights are only working on corners where they are powered by businesses (such as bank corners). There is very little traffic. And there is still an eiry aura about the sky, even though the rain seems to have stopped in Santo Domingo. It has been quite a few years since I remember four days of straight raining. My imagination leads me to think up a science fiction novel. Meanwhile, my teenage sons celebrate being able to sleep late tomorrow...