Hurricane Omar batters Aruba, heads for US islands - Yahoo! News

__________________

A compilation of several videos showing some places in Aruba yesterday during the storm.

24ora.com - Your news provider - Video di e efecto di mal tempo na Aruba

Local Lisa; Thanks for posting the video. What a mess for the hotels to clean up from. Saw a few storms like this one when I was living in Aruba and all that beach cleaning takes awhile, so much seaweed gets thrown up on the beachs....I sure miss walking the beaches after a big storm and getting some really incredible shells. Got a box full of beauties that I keep saying that I am going to get shadow boxes for to display them, hey maybe that will be this weekends project.

Again, thanks Local Lisa, stay safe during this storm

__________________
Some people get lost in thought because it's unfamiliar territory.

OMG! That looks bad. How much damage was done or do you know yet? How much rain did you get? Has it moved away yet? Keep us updated please.

Thanks. When I was a kid my father used to bring us by the beach after the storm and we walked by the surf looking at the shells that were washed up. I miss those days.

Our sister islands Curacao and Bonaire had it much worse. a group of volunteers already went their to give a hand. The storm turned to a hurricane category between midnight and early morning. Now it's on its way to the US islands. We are waiting for the tail, that's the worst part of a hurricane. The hurricane never reached Aruba and stayed at some 200km above the island. We did have sun at some point, but now it's completely clouded This storm has brought lots of rain, but less damaging than Ivan in 2004.

Thanks for the info. It's amazing what water can do!

__________________

How about some more info on damages, maybe some photos.

Hi arubabob,

some pictures taken October 14 not from me

Rodgers Beach
Oranjestad
School damages
another school damages
more Aruba pictures during the storm
pictures of Aruba when the storm started to subside
scoreboard damaged by the battering weather

Today the sun and the bluest skies are smiling back to us. the water is being pumped out by machinery or dried by the sunny weather.

Thank you Lisa

__________________

Thak you Lisa. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Could someone provide information about the damages that the hurricane has caused. I look at the pictures that are posted and they look very bad. But everything I'm reading says that Aruba is fine. That's confusing me.

We're heading to Aruba (Surf Club) on Nov 1 and am wondering if we should expect to find that stores, restaurants, etc are closed due to damage. I'm also especially curious about any damage to the Surf Club. Thanks.

__________________
BT

bt, all is going back to normal as usual. a few trees might have fallen, a few spots with wet floors and the beaches washed away but other than the tree, all will return to it's normal within days. that's one of the amazing things about aruba and many islands... what washes away returns.

it has happened many times and will again. fortunately, aruba never gets the full brunt of a hurricane which makes its recovery much quicker. the one thing you may find is that the water is cloudy during the first few days there. however, my sources already told me that the sand and beaches are returning and the sun is drying it all out.

__________________
vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

Sherry is right. Still lots of puddles. The selena is full - the egrets are happy - had some rain yesterday but today looks lovely!

I must admit Omar reminded me of growing up in Sea Bright NJ (by Sandy Hook) and getting hurricaines. The "calm" side of the sea had what I call "real" waves and we had no power for a day - but thankfully here you still have water and gas - so it wasn't so bad.

At the grocery stores - the fruit/veggie selection isn't so good because the containers must have been delayed but besides that - life is good!

__________________
___________________________
Liz
Mick's Photo's
www.tlfphotographic.com

My Pets and Rescues
http://community.webshots.com/user/msgrumble

Thank you both. I feel better now. We are very much looking forward to our 2 weeks away and your responses have settled my nerves.

__________________
BT

Ironically Hurricane Omar is the cause of us going to Aruba in December. Normally, we spend 2 weeks in Aruba in June and 2 weeks in St. Maarten in December. After Omar hit Aruba, it hit St. Maarten and caused considerable damage to our timeshare there. Preliminary information is that the timeshare will be closed the rest of the year. Using an II Accommodation Certificate, I was able to grab a week in December at the Playa Linda. Considering the alternative of staying home in Jersey, we couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Two questions, how did you get your airfare money back? An accomodation certificate is only of you have banked a week, right?

Good luck with the timeshare. At least you were not there when it hit. Where do you own? We are thinking of trading our t/s or possibly getting a bonus week/escape or whatever they call it. Do you stay on the French or Dutch side?

__________________

Hi DiviARuba:
I didn’t get my airfare money back. I changed my reservations from St. Maarten to Aruba and had to pay $100 cancellation fee for both tickets plus the difference in the airfare. All told it cost me about $560. The funny thing about this is that early the next morning my credit card company contacted me about the transaction. It seems that instead of charging the $560 to my credit card, US Airways charged $42,000. I can tell you that phone call woke me up! It took a few phone calls but I am assured that all is well.

You are right about the Accommodation Certificate. II gives them for certain deposits. I generally get them if I deposit certain of my Aruba and St. Maarten weeks. They come in handy as I was able to use ACs for the Playa Linda exchange, and also for upcoming trips to New Orleans and Orlando.

I own at the Royal Islander in St. Maarten. It is on the Dutch side as are most of the timeshares. The island is pretty small so its easy to go from one side to the other although driving is more difficult than in Aruba. It is a nice resort right on the beach. But that is the problem. This is the third time since 1995 that the resort has closed because of hurricane damage. The last two times our maintenance fees were credited to the following year. I was told the same thing will happen this time. I hope so.
Tom

Thanks for the info. Once I tried to cancel an airfare as the resort closed for renovations (Antigua through AA) and they refused to let me change to Aruba. Guess it depends on the airline.

__________________