“The
safest place to be during an earthquake is at sea,” says TK. Just when I
thought that not much was happening and this would be a very normal cruise, we
found out, according to AccuWeather:
To
quote:
“7.6 magnitude earthquake shakes the Caribbean Sea,
tsunami threat diminishes
By Brian Lada,
AccuWeather meteorologist and staff writer
By Faith Eherts, AccuWeather
meteorologist
January
10, 2018, 6:23:23 AM EST
“A magnitude 7.6 earthquake
shook the Caribbean Sea early Tuesday night. As of 10:48 p.m. CST, all tsunami
advisories were canceled throughout the Caribbean and Central America.
“No damage has been reported
from this event, despite the high magnitude and several strong aftershocks.
“We have reports that it was
felt in the majority of the country, but we don’t have reports of damage,” said
Lizandro Rosales, director of Honduras’ contingencies commission.
“A tsunami advisory was issued for Puerto Rico, the
U.S. Virgin Island and the British Virgin Islands shortly after the earthquake
hit, but was later canceled.”
Last
night after dinner TK and Lawrence went to the movie under the stars, Pirates
of the Caribbean, and since it had already started I opted to simply
read my very good book by Greg Iles, Mississippi Blood. Donna did not come to dinner because she
was not feeling well.
It
is easy for me to get lost in such a book, but I did feel that the ocean's waves were attacking the ship with more fury after today’s calm seas. The
captain announced by intercom to all staterooms and public areas that because
of the turbulence we would not be arriving in St.Thomas at the scheduled time.
I did not think much about that until this morning when we found out about this
earthquake.
We
learned that today was the first day since Hurricanes Irma and Maria in
September 2017 that a Carnival ship stopped in St.Thomas. As we disembarked from the Sunshine,
we could see that palm trees had lost limbs, a fence barrier along the walkway
to downtown was twisted in some places and strongly supported in others, and a
few buildings looked abandoned.
Because
I needed the ring resized that I bought last year, we went straight to Alpha Jewelers. I asked Nikita (co-owner --we share
birthdays) how they fared. She told me that they experienced water damage and they
went without electricity for 105 days. They had a generator, but could only use
it for 8 hours at a time, long enough to keep food. She said that things were
not entirely back to normal yet. The ring was sized without cost. Things are
done differently in St.Thomas.
While
at Alpha, two younger ladies came in
who were staying on the island for a week. They said last night that when the tsunami
warning was announced, they were told to gather their passports and valuables
and leave the hotel for higher ground for safety. This was a real threat to the islanders, but
fortunately, the warning was lifted shortly after.
After
Alpha, TK and I walked the main streets. Many shops are now closed and, as
Donna mentioned later this evening, the streets seemed quieter, less hectic,
and maybe even somber. The hurricanes certainly took a toll here. After a soda
at Green Parrot, we returned to
Alpha to pick up the finished ring.
For Friend H: On our return to the ship,
the cab driver ($4/pp) told us his story of the hurricane. The roof of his house
was torn off and now, despite having home insurance, the insurance company is
denying him recompense. I asked him
about the grand Marriott resort right on the waterfront, Frenchman’s Reef. He said
the roof was completely torn off the hotel and that it is closed. The hotel
laid off 650 employees, including him—he had worked there 25 years. I know Friend H had a fabulous time at this resort last summer.
Every
night we have been going to the main dining room on Deck 3 for “Your Time”
dining with Donna and Lawrence. We finally noticed that Carnival is only using
tablecloths on formal night. I am sure they save a lot of money that way. For
the purposes of this blog, I will not be going into extreme detail about the
food—just general comments, generally. I prefer simple food and nothing on a
cruise ship seems to taste like I think it will. Tonight the key lime pie was
absolutely delicious. We lingered a long
time after dinner enjoying the conversation!
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