This thread is for Hurricane Dean reports from St Lucia.
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A personal report posted on www.stormcarib.com by a St Lucia resident and restauranteur:
The northernmost part of St Lucia seems to have been brushed by the eye of Dean and in the area of Cap Estate we have seen some houses with partly lost roofs and quite a few fallen trees, branches and power lines partly blocking the roads (most of it cleared up by now). In this part of the island most houses are big and well built so the damage does not seem bad at all.
Pigeon Island and Pigeon Causeway seem to have been affected by huge storm surges so a lot of stones including small boulders and corals, sand and debris has been washed up against Sandals Grande. The wooden fence outside the hotel seem to have stopped it to go further into the property.
In the town of Gros Islet some houses lost their roofs including the Bar/Restaurant Banana Split. Here the houses are smaller, many only built of plywood and most of them with galvanized roofs. About six fishing boats are missing from Gros Islet and a few others have washed ashore broken in pieces. The storm surge seem to have been big here too with a lot of sand washing ashore.
At Reduit Beach huge storm surges caused flooding to some of the hotels as far in as Tuxedo Villas on the other side of the road. The yard behind The Yacht Club was completely flooded when we went by yesterday, a sail boat on stands had tipped over and part of the roof had come of the recently closed pub "Cat's Whiskers".
In Rodney Bay and Heights the houses are bigger and well built and as far as I know did not sustained any severe damage. We live on the hill in Reduit and the only thing that came down here was a huge amount of leaves and some small branches. I guess we were well protected by the smaller trees and bushes around and the hill behind us.
I have heard that some boats have sunk in Castries harbour and sand and stones has been washed up on our seaside Vigie airport but it is worse than everything is running as normal today.
In other parts including the countryside in different parts of of the island I do not know much more than reports have been made of many fallen trees, some over houses, and overflowing of rivers. As far as I know only one fatality related to Dean is reported; a man somewhere in the countryside drowned when attempting to save a cow caught in an overflowing river. Many communities especially in the country side have a lot of small houses built with plywood houses and galvanized roofs and of course they have sustained more damages like blown off roofs and so forth but all in all it seems like mostly trees, branches and other debris have gone down.
We also saw some electricity and telephone lines down when we were out a few hours after but we had telephone service all through the storm and the electricity came back Friday night in the areas around Rodney Heights and Reduit but did not return to Rodney Bay Village until late night Friday - early morning Saturday.
Our restaurant The Edge Restaurant, Bar and Sushi in Rodney Bay Village did not sustain any severe damage. Only a lot of leaves and dirt to clean up. A big motor yacht had dragged on its mooring and knocked down a few pieces of our railing and torches but from tonight Saturday we are open as usual, as most other business here in the north.
We had quite a lot of rain and thunderstorms until around 8 pm last night but today it has been sunny and dry and we are all busy cleaning up.
The restaurant is
The Edge Restaurant Bar & Sushi
Harmony Suites Hotel
Flamboyant Drive
Rodney Bay Village
St Lucia W.I.
www.edge-restaurant.com