Red Flag Warning

The other week we had some dry heat kind of weather and things on the inland started to catch on fire (one in front of our place) Rhianon was home and had a chance to get some good pic's of the action, we even had a news station come onto our deck to get some video of the fire. Don't worry it didn't make it up to our place. But Rhianon kept on calling me at work giving me updates about the fire and that our place was OK.

Condition Of Readiness (COR)

The Conditions of Readiness are based on the onset of damaging winds of 39 mph sustained to the island.

COR 4
* Damaging winds may arrive on-island within 72 hours
* Normal day to day activities

COR 3
* Damaging winds may arrive within 48 hours
* Review, update your family disaster plan
* Buy & replenish supplies for your disaster supply kit
* Fill up car(s) with gas
* Secure outdoor objects
* Prepare household for long term power & water loss (laundry, outdoor cooking, etc.)
* Tune into radio and / or television

COR 2
* Damaging winds may arrive within 24 hours
* Close & secure shutters
* Fill containers with water
* Move vehicles to a secure & protected area
* Review Family Disaster Plan with entire family
* Seek Emergency Shelter if home is not fully concrete or prepared to withstand damaging winds.
* Tune into radio and / or television.

COR 1
* Damaging winds are occuring or expected within 12 hours
* Only Mission Essential Personnel & Vehicles Allowed Outside
* Tune into radio and / or television

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

THIS WEEK’S NEWS
(Thank you KUAM news team)

Friday, March 30, 2007

The National Weather Service has placed Guam under a Red Flag Warning until Saturday evening, meaning critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly. According to the NWS, a combination of fresh to strong tradewinds, low afternoon relative humidity, and warm temperatures will create explosive fire growth potential.

Just last week the NWS declared a Fire Weather Watch, brought on by similar dry conditions and high winds.

The National Weather Service was on the money when it issued its Red Flag Fire Warning this morning. Today fires broke out across the island, filling Guam's normally blue skies with smoke. Locales like Cross-Island Road, Turtle Cove, and parts of Tiyan were literally swallowed by flames.

According to the NWS, relative humidity probably hit as low as 55% today's high was 88° and the island's dew point was 71° - both perfect weather for fires.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

NWS tracking storm near Pohnpei

At 6pm Saturday the National Weather Service announced that tropical storm conditions could be possible this Monday or Tuesday for the Mariana Islands. A tropical storm disturbance west of Pohnpei is expected to develop and move northwest toward our region, possibly bringing tropical storm conditions to the region by the beginning of the workweek.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Guam placed in Condition 2

At around 9:30pm Sunday the island was declared in Condition of Readiness "2", according to the Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense. This means damaging winds may arrive within 24 hours. At 8pm Sunday the National Weather Service placed Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan under a Typhoon Warning.

Typhoon Warning issued for Marianas
At 8pm Sunday evening the National Weather Service issued a Typhoon Warning for Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan. While still a tropical storm, the formation named Kong-Rey is expected to intensify overnight and should become a typhoon on Monday. The storm is moving northwest at 13 miles per hour and this general motion is expected to continue during the next 24 hours. Maximum sustained winds are 50 miles per hour.

Residents advised to prepare for Kong-Rey's arrival
Damaging winds due to Tropical Storm Kong-Rey are possible in the Marianas beginning Monday night, with stronger winds reaching typhoon intensity along the track of the storm. National Weather Service meteorologist Chip Guard told KUAM News, "This is our best guest of what's going to happen: We expect the damaging winds of 40 miles per hour to arrive about 7pm Monday and then the destructive winds that can blow your roof - especially tin roofs through the air - about 1am Tuesday. From 4am-9am Tuesday possible typhoon-force winds may arrive. The damaging winds that arrive tomorrow night may last about twenty-four hours. The destructive winds that arrive at 1am will last about twelve hours."

Monday, April 02, 2007

Tsunami Watch declared after quake near Solomon Islands

As if we didn't have enough on our hands with the impending Tropical Storm Kong-Rey about 400 miles to the east-southeast, Guam is now keeping a keen eye on a tsunami warning. An earthquake registering as high as 7.8 on the Richter Scale occurred about 217 miles northwest of the Solomon Islands.

Tsunami Watch cancelled, but storm grows stronger
After a few brief moments of concern, Guam is back to having to worry about only a single natural event. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called off the Tsunami Watch for Guam, according to the Governor's Office, shortly before 9am. However, the "other" issue of the day - Tropical Storm Kong-Rey - continues to build in intensity as it heads northwest towards Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Typhoon Warning called off, but Guam still in COR2
Guam rose to the challenge of an impending typhoon, and this time our island fortunately was spared as the National Weather Service at 8pm Monday cancelled the Typhoon Warning for Guam. Typhoon Kong-Rey continues to move north-northwest toward the Mariana Islands, tracking toward Saipan and Tinian.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Back to normal: Condition of Readiness 4 restored
With Typhoon Kong-Rey no longer posing a direct threat to Guam, the local government as well as the United States military declared the island back in Condition of Readiness 4 at 7am Tuesday. Guam was fortunate to have not been in the direct path of a formation that built in intensity as it headed towards the Marianas after first being plotted over the weekend near Pohnpei. Kong-Rey went rather quickly from being a tropical storm to a typhoon over the course of a very busy Monday for the island's response activity coordinators.

While the Typhoon Watch was called off at 8 last night as the formation veered towards Tinian and Saipan and away from making a direct hit on Guam and Rota, the Government of Guam chose to persist having COR2 declared as a precautionary measure through the late hours of the night.

Back to normal: Condition of Readiness 4 restored

While the Typhoon Watch was called off at 8 last night as the formation veered towards Tinian and Saipan and away from making a direct hit on Guam and Rota, the Government of Guam chose to persist having COR2 declared as a precautionary measure through the late hours of the night.

With Typhoon Kong-Rey no longer posing a direct threat to Guam, the local government as well as the United States military declared the island back in Condition of Readiness 4 at 7am Tuesday. Guam was fortunate to have not been in the direct path of a formation that built in intensity as it headed towards the Marianas after first being plotted over the weekend near Pohnpei. Kong-Rey went rather quickly from being a tropical storm to a typhoon over the course of a very busy Monday for the island's response activity coordinators.

KONG-REY

We have tons to update!!!!
It has been busy here...
I only have time to inform you of the latest news...

...TROPICAL STORM CONTINUES INTENSIFYING AND MOVING TOWARD
THE MARIANAS... (that is us... Guam is the southern most Mariana Island)

We have the Typhoon Kong-Rey heading our direction... it has shifted north as of last night and looks like it is going to pass just over us and hit Saipan. The Pacific Daily news says, "it continues to intensify as it moves towards Saipan, Rota and Guam." Currently the maximum sustained winds are 75 mph and are expected to reach 40 mph here on Guam. The typhoon may reach sustained winds of 95 to 110 mph within the next 24 hours.

Heath and I are fine... he has to stand duty at the hospital until the storm passes, he left last night at 2:30am. We secured the house last night before he left with the typhoon shutters and I have been working all day preparing the house. I will be staying with friends up the street. We may be out of power and water after the storm for quite a while. I will post more when I can.

The best websites we have found to stay informed are:

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/guam/
(click on "colorized loop" for a good pic)

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/guam/cyclone.php
(Map view of the path is the 4th bullet down)

http://www.guampdn.com/
(Guam Pacific Daily News)

Fruit and Flower Tour of Our yard

Backyard/Papaya Tree

Heath gathering our ripe fruit... the banana tree is in our backyard, you can see it behind his hand that is holding the bananas. Notice the garden behind him "before."

The garden "after" we spent 5 hours getting it ready for planting.
We went to the nursery and picked out our babies...
tomato, chilies, Thai basil, and green onion. We also bought seeds to plant.

The pile of leaves we left in the bottom right of the picture are covering our wild chicken eggs, we wondered what the mama was doing in our back yard while we were tearing out the plants and weeds, I guess we were upsetting her nest... oops.

Look closely below... the light, dusty green is not part of this tree... it is an epaphite, or an air plant... it receives all of its nutrients from the air and just hangs out in the crevas of this tree.

These are the two flowers that land on our cars... they are so beautiful.

These are not on our property but ones we took our first couple weeks here.

Fishing

We have wonderful neighbors! The day we moved in we were getting into our truck to grab some grub and our neighbor, Nina, stopped us. She is a very sweet retired nurse, who spends a lot of her time gardening and raising orchids, she is originally from the Palau. Her husband is retired and spends a lot of his time out fishing (maybe he and Heath will be fishing buddies.) Anyway, she said she thought we were going out to get food so she made us dinner. It was Marlin her husband had caught. She also had 16 Mahi Mahi and 1 Wahoo on ice. She taught Heath how to filet a huge ocean fish and filled our freezer with about $100-$120 worth of filet's. Since then Heath has gone out to the ocean right in front of our house and I have been able to see him from our living room. The only way to get to the ocean is by a two track off the main road.

Inside our Home

Kitchen Before... working hard is my dorky (he told me to write that) but cute (my addition) husband Heath.

Kitchen After (There is so much cupboard space I don't even know what to do with it all)Kitchen ViewLiving Room (The ocean is to the right and the hall to the 3 bedrooms is to the left)

Dinning Room (I'm not crazy about our colors with the tile, but they look good with the kitchen. The pictures are not hung yet... it is not as easy to hang things on cement walls)


Master Bedroom... this room also has a view of the ocean. There are two other bedrooms, the main guest bedroom also has an ocean view. The other room, we will turn into our office and storage room, it looks out at our backyard full of flowers and fruit trees.

Master Bathroom
Decorating and arranging furniture is still a work in progress, the two bedrooms and guest bathroom not pictured are not set up yet either. If you have suggestions on decorating let me know. So here it is our Home-SWEET-Home.

Moving Into Our New Home

We did a Discovery Dive and where we went we saw this ship... this is the type of ship that our homegoods and car were shipped over on... hopefully my car is on this one!

The waiting is over... Thursday the movers were scheduled to unload our housegoods... Heath checked off the boxes as they unloaded and I directed them as to where to put the boxes. In three hours we unloaded all of our boxes and then spent the next three days unpacking them.

This is our entrance to our house... my car arrived on wednesday and this is the truck we bought for exploring the island.

This is the view from below the house... we have the upstairs with the wrap-around porch and the lower level belongs to a quiet navy girl.

These are of our view taken from our porch

Waiting and Exploring

Goodbye hotel living!
We stayed our last few days between hotel and home with some friends whom Heath worked with back in CA, this was a wonderful transition into normal living.

While we waited to move into our house we spent our time getting everything set up as well as touring the island... below are some pictures of what we found.

Good-bye, Mrs. Wilhoit

Round Table Times: San Marcos Middle School
Good-bye, Mrs. Wilhoit
By: Shaley Sirisack

(One of the students just emailed me the letter she wrote for the school newspaper. I thought it was cute and somewhat informative for those of you wanting to learn a little about Guam, or me.)

On January 19, 7th grade Art and 7th/8th grade Science teacher Mrs. Rhianon Wilhoit left San Marcos Middle School. Mrs. Wilhoit's husband is in the Navy and they are being transferred to Guam. Guam is a small tropical island in the South Pacific. It is north of Australia and Papua New Guinea, South of Japan, East of the Philippines and West of Hawaii. Mrs. Wilhoit considers the geology around Guam fascinating; they will be 200 miles west of the deepest part of the world, the Mariana Trench. Guam was formed by volcanic activity. It is surrounded by coral reefs great for snorkeling and scuba diving.

She and her husband are very excited about being able to travel the world. She was in her 3rd year of teaching. She is very sad to leave SMMS and the students that she has enjoyed. She is looking forward to her new life and the adventures that await her in Guam. Mrs. Wilhoit is glad she had the opportunity to know several of the students here and to teach them. The new Art teacher is Mrs. York, and she is sure to be just as great as Mrs. Wilhoit. Mrs. Wilhoit hopes to get a teaching job in Guam. She says she'll miss the staff, students, and the weather here. She wants the students she has taught to believe in themselves and they'll find success. She hopes for the best for her students and their families. If anyone would like to contact Mrs. Wilhoit, her e-mail address is wilhoit.mrs@gmail.com. Mrs. Wilhoit would be glad to keep in touch with students and staff. We all hope for the best for her.

Happy Birthday Heath!

Today marks our third week here on Guam as well as Heath’s birthday. Happy Birthday my love! We have had a great day, with great food, great company and a lot to be thankful for!

Things have been slowly falling into place since we arrived with only a few minor glitches. Heath checked in on base during our first week and the past two we have had so much to do to get set up and begin to settle in here. Thankfully, Heath has been on “house hunting leave” from work, so the past 12 days we have been able to get most things done. He just went back yesterday.

So far, we have found an amazing house to rent… we will post pictures once we move in…hopefully this week! You will not believe it! I dream about it all the time, I just can’t wait to get all of our housing items dropped off so we can begin to make it home. I am so anxious to not be living out of suitcases; 3 months has been a long time!

We have bought a little “boonie” truck, perfect for exploring this little island… there are a lot of off road beaches and hiking trails to waterfalls. It will also be great for throwing our scuba or snorkeling gear, surfboards or bikes in the back. My car should be here this weekend. I got my Guam drivers license without having to take any tests, in fact unlike the California DMV or the Michigan Secretary of State, I was in and out of there with my Guam drivers license in hand within 30 minutes (quite amazing, especially for laid-back island life.)

So above I mentioned scuba diving, we are getting certified to dive at the end of this month, part of heath’s birthday present. I have been so nervous… but we did a discovery dive to see if my ears could handle it and if I felt Closter phobic, and I was fine… so I am so stoked! Plus, it is one more thing I can do with Heath… who knows, I may learn to golf out here too, we will see.

Once we settle into our house I will put in my application to substitute at the Naval Middle School and High School. My application is in for a teaching job for the fall. Subbing will be nice and flexible, that way, if I wake up hypnotized by the ocean waves out my bedroom window, I can easily turn down sub jobs depending on the day. :)

More to come on our house soon…you all will be so jealous!