A palm tree has just been blown over outside my room

[prufrock]

I'm in Nevis, and we are right on the edge of Huricane Dean. We've all been asked to stay inside as much as possible, beaches are closed, can't dive because all boats have been hauled out. The rain is horizontal, and the top half of Mount Nevis is invisible behind thick cloud. And this is right at the edge - poor St Lucia and Martinique have been caught at the centre

Are you going to stay on the edge of Hurricane Dean?

oh how scary, stay safe! Isn't it very early to be getting hurricanes or is it the start of the season already?

oh gosh hurricane season

August is the peak season, but this is the first full blow hurricane. We are going to be fine - Dean's moving west v. quickly and we are on the northern edge , they reckon another 24 hours of tropical storm (up to 40 mph winds)

Poor Jamaica is really going to suffer though -forecasters reckon it will get level with Jamaica in 2-3 days and be a Cat 4/5 by then - winds at 155mph. Everyone is just hoping it passes to the South rather than turning up towards the island

OH I always thought it started later... had no idea. I once sailed across the Atlantic on the tail of a hurricane and that was late August early Sept so I guess I should have realised. We always get the tail end of them over here in the UK, so I suppose we'll start getting all those Autumn lows... yummy (not!)

I wondered if this was you Prufrock. I hope you're all ok.

I got hit in St Kitts in 1998. Direct hit, eye of the storm the lot Do exactly as the resort advises and you will be fine. Our hotel were fantastic. Good Luck!

WOW Mnetting in a Hurricane - now that's dedication

Hope you are OK !

oh bum

not an awful lot else to do whizz. I did go to the gym, then got soaked to teh skin on teh way back to my room. Kids are safely ensconsed in kids club in the basement, TV keeps going off because of teh storm and there's only so many imes you can do F&FS

We got hit by a hurricane when we were in St Lucia 5 years go - scary stuff!

How are you all Prufrock?

What's it like now, prufrock? Hope everything's fine.

why oh why oh why do people go to the caribbean and florida in august? you complete nutter, prufrock.

bit like going to India in the monsoon and then complaining about the rain

She's commenting though, not complaining.

I'm not a nutter, nor am I complaining - the storm was actually quite exciting, power of nature and all that, though I do feel bad for Jamaica - looks like it will be horrendous there.

We are in the Carribean now pph because this way we could have 6 weeks rather than the 2 we could manage at Xmas (dh is taking a v. long holiday) and we had to stop off in Barbados to check on MIL's house as she hasn't been able to get out here for a while and the pool needs re surfacing so we are supervising that.

It's all passed now - beach is still closed to sailing and dive boats are still hauled outbut apart from that all is back to normal.

Glad to hear you have survived
Have a nice rest of hols anyway

Peak hurricane season is august thru October

General horrendousness and sympathy aside, isn't "Dean" a crap name for a hurricane?

Expect Hurricane Wayne, Hurricane Tracey, Hurricane Ryan, Hurricane Duane and Hurricane Stacey to arrive before long.

Or maybe they will run out of proper names and have to start using "modern" ones, so we'll get Hurricane Lateesha-Chanelle, Hurricane Teejay and Hurricane Princess-Tiiammii (with accent to make it more exotic).

(I've done that one before, but there's always someone who hasn't heard it )

LOL @ UQD

Poor you - my best friend was leaving for her honeymoon today but flights all cancelled and this is after the awful rain on saturday which really put her on a downer on her wedding day

Just for you UQD - hurricane names

Chantal, Shary, Stan, Ike, Teddy, Mindy are all already on there...