Before and After the Rain

In my last post we had been waiting for some rain from Tropical Storm Erika. She passed us by as she was disintegrating into a tropical depression and so her visit only brought us rain, about 7 inches within a couple of days. It was enough rain to replenish water cisterns across the island, and to return St. Croix to a lovely verdant color.



Here are some shots before and after the rain:







The one disadvantage to all that rain was a resurgence of mosquitoes. Our resident geckos have been feasting, and I have a developed a theory that mosquitoes are potent aphrodisiacs for our gecko friends. This was the scene around the house the other morning:

Waiting for Erika

It's a balmy morning here on St. Croix. We're enjoying blue skies with puffy white clouds, sunshine, and lovely breezes that sway the palm trees. It's the classic tableau of Caribbean paradise.

Looking east towards Buck Island, the views are so lovely that it's hard to reconcile the fact that Tropical Storm Erika threatens just beyond that peaceful horizon.



She's at the moment hovering around Dominica and Guadeloupe and she's headed our way. Fortunately for us, she's very disorganized and is moving at the slow pace of about 7 miles per hour. But she has sustained winds of 40 mph, and when she comes, she's likely to dump 3 to 5 inches of rain on us.



This last part is a bit of good news. Over the past couple of months we have had insignificant rain fall over our part of the island. The land is parched and the grasses are brown (although the bougainvillea thrives in this aridness). So the rain that's coming is welcome. And we'll keep our fingers crossed that those 40 mph winds will elude us, because Erika is so disorganized that she's being demoted to a tropical depression when she gets to Puerto Rico.



Radar photo from http://www.goes.noaa.gov/HURRLOOPS/huirloop.html.