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You will read and hear contradictory information about damage and recovery.
Please remember that different people have different sources for their
information and that some of it may be incorrect.
During and just after a hurricane, please do not burden people who live on the island with email and phone calls until it is known that there are no severe problems. If you have friends or family in an affected area, visit the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network Web site listed below and fill out the form for Health and Welfare Information. Please, please, please -- be patient.
A video on our video blog collectionshows Hurricane Dean striking Martinique here (personal video), here (personal video), and here (RFO news) on the morning of August 17 and damage on Guadeloupe after the strike. Lots of trees and billboards down, and roofs were blown off the open-air markets.
Hurricane Dean is reported heading for Martinique. France has issued hurricane warnings for both Martinique and Guadeloupe; other islands in the path include Dominica and St. Lucia. Electric outages are reported in Martinique because of high winds. Nowpublic.com has photos and more reports in links to other online sources. St. Lucia is described as a total mess, but this is on-the-scene commentary from people who have just emerged from shelters.
The Weather Underground has it's maps, reports, and forecasts online. Local radio reports monitored on Martinique speak of landslides and heavy flooding according to MSNBC.com.
Online hurricane and storm reports:
Plymouth State College has a National Hurricane Advisory for text or pictures. WSTA 1340 AM Radio is a Virgin Islands radio station that posts news daily and has any appropriate hurricane updates for the U.S.V.I. SXMCYCLONE is a French- language site with information on hurricanes and specific information on St. Martin and St. Barth. The page has lots of graphics, animations, and images, so it takes awhile to download.
If you have brought a portable radio with you on your trip to the French West Indies, you may find the BBC's World Service helpful, as it is broadcast in English. Before you go, visit BBC World Service Schedules and select tthe island you are visiting; then print the schedule of broadcasts and frequencies. (Some are shortwave, some are AM or FM.)
The Weather Underground has a Tropical Weather page with current conditions in the tropics worldwide.
Intellicast has a Tropical Weather page, as well. Its pages are complicated to render, require you to go through an advertisement, and take forever to download and display.
Hams and listeners with appropriate radios and antennas can get emergency traffic weather information from the Caribbean Maritime Mobile Net on 7.241 MHz at 1100 UTC.
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