Hurricanes/Tropical Storms

[Scuba_Jenny]

Bermudaskink:
Thanks for the report, hope all is well with you and the people of Bermuda. I lived thro Andrew and know the destructive force of hurricanes.
Best Wishes for a speedy recovery.
:j

 

[cudachaser]

Bermudaskink,

Thanks for the update. Glad you are OK...The rebuilding will be a tough time for everyone...Good luck

Joe

 

[VaScubaGirl]

Because dumb ole Fabian had to come along and RUIN my dive weekend. So instead of being in SC under the waves, what am I doing this weekend?? Painting a house! So yes I am cranky that I am not diving...I hope the visibility is good by the weekend on the 19th (when we've rescheduled). Does anyone know how long it takes for the viz to clear after a storm like that passes through? I think I'll go pout now...

 

[bermudaskink]

Lucky you're only painting your house - if you were here you'd be putting the roof back on or maybe you would not even have one to paint!!!


I just met my friends at a local bar who all work at the dive shop, which I am a member of. The entire dive shop is GONE!! Compressor, tanks, gear, shop floor, walls, steps - all washed into the sea!! Many of the instructors lost thousands of dollars worht of gear. Some found their BCDs washed up on the beach while one person's dive bag washed up several miles away with nothing in it!!

The vis will clear up in a week but the dive shop might not even get rebuilt

;-0

There are still other dive shops but that was the best one.

A very sad day indeed!!

 

[coliseum]

Glad you are ok... Yep, I also survived Andrew...

It just amazes me that after all that destruction in Bermuda, the Internet is still working! ! !

Doesn't the Dive shop have Disaster Insurance to cover them? its Bermuda after all ?!?!?

 

[VaScubaGirl]

Oh my gosh! That's terrible! Are you and yours ok? I can't imagine living in a place that has to deal with such destruction. Virginia is lucky that way...usually the hurricanes have peetered out, no tornadoes, no huge raging forest fires or mud slides or earthquakes, and no terrible flood either. You are absolutely right, I will count my blessings and NOT pout today. Take care of yourself down there!

 

[bermudaskink]

Yes I assume the dive shops are insured. But rebuilding will take a while and I doubt they will build there again for fear of the same thing happeneing so who knows where they will go. They have another shop in another location but that has been damaged too, though not so badly. We checked it out last night to see if our spare regulator was there (it was in for servicing) but the doors have been ripped out by the wind and all the equipment has gone. Someone may have been down there and salvaged our reg but I think it may have been swept away. DOH!! It was a good little Mares titanium XL reg with octopus and gauge- 6 years old but in good nik. I doubt that we'll see it again. Farewell my trusty friend!

All the instructors who lost their gear did not have insurance for hurricanes and the dive shop wont pay for their losses. My reg wasn't insured either You just don't expect it get blown out of the dive shop do you!!??

Most of the country is still without power though telephone lines have luckily survived better. The main city has underground lines and internet to Bermuda is all under the ocean and around town all the cables for everything is underground. So that's why I can get online. My neighbourhood will be cut off for weeks and we have a bizzilion ants in the house looking for new homes. The floor is COVERED in ants!!!!


;-0

OK enough winging from me.... I'll be back in the ocean soon (where the f-ing ants can't get me!) even if I have to clamber down one of the eroded beaches to the shore! I still have my super lovely dive gear which IMO is the best dive gear available to mankind, which I have saved up for several years to purchase so I have to be thankful even though I don't have a dive shop anymore to dive with. I've also still got a roof on my house and I'm alive! So really - quite lucky!!

 

[VaScubaGirl]

Keep your chin up, I am sure it will all work out fine. Can you file for reimbursement for your regulator under your homeowners insurance?

 

[FredT]

Having been through several direct hits here, the recovery after one of these things is always much worse than the storm. Good luck on the recovery. I hope your insurance rules are better than the ones we had in the Bahamas. Those rules insured against everything except what you could could actually have a claim for.

As far as the washed out dive shop is concerned, if there is rough hard bottom off the shore there most of the "heavy bits" will be sorted into that area. If it's a thick sand bottom there is a good chance the heavy bits will be under sand. If you want to help the shop a few "trolling dives" where the divers are dragged behind a boat in a search pattern may recover a fair amout of the lost hardware, specifically the bank tanks, filters, and compressor head. If submerged for less than a couple weeks they all should be salvageable. Tanks will be recoverable up to a month if the valve broke off and the inside flooded, up to several months if the valves remained intact.

If there was a signficant angle to the wave action the debris may be "downcurrent" quite a ways. A weather station washed off a pier in Lake Worth Fla in the hallowen storm (the one the movie "Prefect Storm" was about) was found intact about a half mile away in 30' of water several months later. "Soft" bottom is liquified by the wave induced shear forces near the bottom. Heavy bits sink through this soup quite readily. One oil rig lost in Camille was located upright in the same location by seismic surveay, withthe top deck 80' below mudline. The bottom simply had liquified to below the piling depth and the thing 'sank' into the bottom. Because of this your best bet for finding the gear will be in the depressions among and between the reef lines. Debris dropped into those will generally not be lifted out again, and liquification will be minimal in those areas.

Once again I wish yo well through the recovery. Most folks who havn't been through this a few times don't realise that you are on your own for at least a couple weeks, as help and spare parts takes a while to make it to an island.

FT

 

[miked]

Bermudaskink,
Best wishes to you, and all the people of Bermuda who have been impacted by Fabian.
I have enjoyed the island, its people, and the diving on many vacations, and am sorry for your losses.
Best wishes for a smoothe rebuilding of lives and of your beautiful country.
Take care,
Mike