Tropical Storm Isaac - as predicted - passes by to our south leaving St John unscathed
Most of yesterday was spent preparing for a guest that did not arrive - thankfully. At 7 AM this morning, Tropical Storm (TS) Isaac will officially pass about 100 miles to our south with clouds, winds at only 45 knots but lots of bands of rain spreading out hundreds of miles out from its center so we will still get lots of rain from this storm. Overnight, the storm jogged slightly south which helped further ensure the safety of the Virgin Islands (and Puerto Rico). So far, heavy, heavy rains have not materialized on St John. The
VI Territorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) cancelled its Hurricane Watch but has continued, for now, its Tropical Storm Warning and Flash Flood Watch.
While today will be no beach day on St John we are all very happy that we have fared so well and happy that we are looking at a pretty nice day...considering what could have been! Our webcam overlooking the south shore of St John shows the clouds still hovering over us:
The Caribbean Hurricane Network posts some fascinating graphics which show how huge this storm is at this point (TS Isaac is the red, orange, yellow, blue mass in the center of the picture below):
We now turn our concern to the Dominican Republic and Haiti which both appear to be in the direct path for the storm which is forecasted to intensify to become Hurricane Isaac by the time it arrives there tomorrow: