Cyclone Wilma

Hurricanes in the South Pacific are not called typhoons, they're called cyclones. Cyclone Wilma, a category 1 storm, hit American Samoa last weekend. Here are some photos from Vatia. I lost my lens cap in the process of getting these photos, so it will be a while before i get any new pictures taken :(

The view from the front door of my house. Usually, you can see the mountains clearly.

CJ running to miss the waves crashing over the bridge. Stay tuned to see what happened to the bridge.

How do the children of Vatia prepare for a hurricane? By playing tetherball, of course.

Somewhere around 4 or 5 am in the middle of the hurricane. Still can't see those mountains.

Around 9 or 10 am - Everyone came outside during the eye of the storm, which passed directly over my island. It was hot and muggy, and it lasted about 2 hours or so (the eye). The whole village was out walking the streets and checking out the ocean, whose waves turned scary.

Ocean view

When the ocean becomes one with the road

Had to get a scary picture of myself to prove I was there

The debris in the road during the eye. This got WORSE over the next 24 hours, after which I got to help clean up by throwing rocks (big and heavy ones) back into the ocean. I wish I had photos of THAT.

Cathy (my host-sister), Leslie, and I walked through the disgusting water to check on the school. Most rooms were ok (some were minorly flodded), but one classroom had left its windows open. Hello wetness.

Remember the picture with the Santa Hats? This is taken from the same place.

More shots of the debris.

A broken (and flooded) bridge. No way out of the village. Luckily the president of the senate lives in my village, so they came to repair this rather quickly. They piled up boulders and filled in the cracks with sand. It will do for now, I guess.