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Eye In The Tropics Storm Reports: |
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Hurricane Dean Flash
Flooding Stock Video, DVD,
and Photos |
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August 17th - Roseau, Dominica |
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The stock
images below are only a small sample. Hundreds of additional
stock photos |
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available for
immediate licensing from Ultimate Chase Inc's sister site
www.ExtremeNature.com |
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Ultimate Chase's Location
During Hurricane Dean: Roseau, Dominica |
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Infrared Satellite Image
Showing Ultimate Chase's Location: |
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Hurricane Dean Infrared Satellite Image Courtesy
NOAA |
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Hurricane Dean
Flash Flood Stock Photos: |
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Refrigerator floating down
stream in flash flood caused from heavy rains in Hurricane
Dean |
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Raging flash flood caused
from heavy rains during Hurricane Dean |
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Local residents try to save
a van from flash flood caused by Hurricane Dean |
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Raging flash flood caused
from heavy rains during Hurricane Dean |
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Raging flash flood caused
from heavy rains during Hurricane Dean |
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Raging flash flood caused
from heavy rains during Hurricane Dean |
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Raging flash flood caused
from heavy rains during Hurricane Dean |
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A local watches the fast
moving flash flood caused from a lot of rain in Roseau,
Dominica |
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A large tree is swept away
in the fast moving flash flood caused from a lot of rain in
Roseau, Dominica |
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A local watches the fast
moving flash flood caused from a lot of rain in Roseau,
Dominica |
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Fast moving flash flood
caused from a lot of rain in Roseau, Dominica |
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Fast moving flash flood
caused from a lot of rain in Roseau, Dominica |
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Fast moving flash flood
caused from a lot of rain in Roseau, Dominica |
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Large swells and waves
crash onto local pier in Dominica |
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Large waves crash against
the sea walls in Roseau, Dominica |
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Large waves crash against
the sea walls in Roseau, Dominica |
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An SUV drives in the
flooded streets of Roseau, Dominica |
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Dominica locals asked me to
take a group shot while standing in the rain |
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A photo of the view out my
hotel window as a heavy squall band approaches |
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A future photographer from
Dominica. I took this photo on the boat ride from
Dominica to Guadeloupe. |
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This kid came up to me and
asked if he could look through the camera lens and learn how to use
it. |
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In 5 minutes time he was
snapping photos of everything holding a camera almost as big
as he was. |
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Leaving the island of
Dominica via boat |
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Hurricane Dean Chase
Account Below: |
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Chase
Account:
I’ve always wanted to document a Hurricane in the
Lesser Antilles and saw Dean as the perfect
opportunity. I knew there was a chance I would miss
Dean’s later landfall in the Yucatan as a stronger
Hurricane but decided to go for it. I knew Dean
would be a strengthening Cat-2 when passing the
islands but didn’t know for sure if Martinique or
Dominica would take the direct hit. I flew to Puerto
Rico and waited as long as I could before the
flights were about to be canceled and chose
Dominica. The flight to Dominica was amazing! The
plane flew through the rain forest mountains and
valleys and we had to make a quick decent since the
runway was short and because of the mountains we
could not make a gradual decent. It was a wild
landing to what would be the beginning of a wild
expedition. I arrived to the airport to find many
tourists panicking trying to get off the island.
This is typical before a hurricane is about to
strike a location. I have arrived to many locations
and seen this reaction from people every time. Funny
how I’m always the only person desperately trying to
get into position for the storm and everyone else is
trying to get away. |
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I went
to my reserved hotel in the town of Roseau on the
southern tip of the island and began to unpack all
my gear and prep for the next morning when the
Hurricane conditions would arrive. The staff at the
“Garraway Hotel” was finishing up last minute
preparations and did a fantastic job making things
safe for the guests. I felt extremely safe and
accommodated by the excellent staff and was pleased
to hear the hotel had a brand new back up generator
so we would never lose power. I headed out into town
with the last hour of daylight left to try and stock
up on water and food since I always prepare for the
worst and want enough food and water to be self
sufficient for at least 7 days. I had no luck since
the only stores open have huge lines and basically
are already sold out of supplies anyway. I get back
to the hotel and ask where I can get some water and
food and I'm directed to the bar where I was able to
buy 6 gallons of water and some other food supplies.
Like I said the hospitality at the
Garraway
Hotel was amazing. I decided to get a few hours
sleep before things got interesting and was able to
get a solid 2 hours of sleep until.... |
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Crash! I
was startled out of bed at 5:30am from a loud crashing sound of a
large piece of sheet metal hitting the side of the
hotel. Winds were picking up and daybreak was coming
real soon. I never bother going outside when still
dark because there is no point if I can’t shoot
video and photos. I analyzed the storm on the
internet and realized the island Martinique just to
the south will take a direct hit and Dominica will
be spared from the worst winds. My attention then shifts from
documenting wind to documenting any landslides or
flash flooding that may occur. The island of
Dominica is mountainous and I knew with the heavy
rains we would experience that there was going to be
some issues with mudslides and flash floods coming
down the mountainside. |
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Daybreak! I venture outside and the winds are
blowing about 65mph and giant swells are starting to
come in and crash over the seawall. Throughout the
morning the winds shifted as the storms center
passed and now the winds were causing havoc. The
gusts were probably no more than 65mph but there was a lot of loose pieces of sheet metal and other
debris that made this a dangerous situation. The
hotel had locked in all the guests in the hotel for
their own safety so I shot video out my hotel room
window for the first few hours as the strongest
winds passed by. The winds were starting to calm
down by 12noon but the rain never slowed down and I
just knew this was going to cause problems and be
the main story for this expedition. I ventured my
way over to where a small flash flood had started
and in the matter of an hour this small flash flood
became
a raging class 5 rapids of rushing brown water and
mud that was coming down the mountainside. I was
having a tough time getting video because I could
not keep the video camera dry. I decided to run back
to the hotel and get my brand new underwater housing
I bought for my still camera and give the video
camera some rest. The underwater housing worked
perfect. I didn’t have to worry about keeping it dry
or hiding under rooftops. I was able to get out in
the thick of things in the pouring rain and document
this rapidly rising flash flood. There were homes
being destroyed on top the mountains and down at the
bottom of the mountain where I was I would
occasionally see roof tops, refrigerators, and other
parts from homes come rushing by in the dangerous
flood waters. I even saw large trees that were
ripped out of the ground in mudslides float by
moving very fast. This was the most violent and fast
moving water I had ever seen. Yes, Katrina the water
was higher but not moving as fast and violent as I
was experiencing in Dominica. I continued to
document this event and after about 3 hours the rain
let up and the water instantly began to go back
down. The winds were way down now to about 35-40 mph
and the rain stopped but now the attention was drawn
to the large 10-15 foot swells coming in off the
ocean. There were dozens of locals standing on the
seawall letting the waves crash into them. At this
point I had been soaking wet for hours and felt the
documentation of the flash flood was a success and
called it a day. I arrived back to my hotel that is
now running on a back up generator and was surprised
to see I still had high speed internet. I took a
long hot shower and got dry. Now, if you are reading
this you might think the main adventure is over,
NOPE! It has only begun. |
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I had
reservations with American Airlines to leave the
island but they were canceled due to weather
conditions. This is understandable and appreciated
for safety. But, what I found out next was totally
unacceptable. I called American Airlines to see when
they would be flying again and when I could leave
the island. I
was told that two flights will be coming in tomorrow but
there is no room on any plane for 2 weeks!! Yes, 2
weeks. Ok, let’s get this straight, I had
reservations to leave and AA canceled them so I am
not going to be put on the next incoming plane? I
was told all flights are full for 2 weeks and that
they were sorry and would refund my money. REFUND MY
MONEY !!! That does not do me any good when I am
stranded on an island in a foreign country that only
has one other airlines coming in and they were full
too. I talked for over 4 hours with AA pleading with
them that they need to send in an extra plane or
change there schedule from 2 flights a day to 3
flights a day long enough to pick up the slack for
customers waiting to get off the island who HAD
RESERVATIONS ! They continued to apologize and tell
me they would refund my money. I was feeling like I
was in the twilight zone. I could not believe this
was the only option. The organization with AA was
MISERABLE. They continued to use the Hurricane as
their excuse for not getting me off the island for 2
weeks and this was not a valid excuse. It was as
simple as sending in an extra plane and the problem
would be resolved. I now realize AA is not going to
do anything about this and it was up to me to get
off the island. This is where my good friend (Celsus) which is an employee at the Garraway started making calls for me and we worked
together to find a way off the island. He was
connected with the locals and found out there was
one last ferry leaving the island at 5pm. He
explained to me that I could take it to Guadeloupe
and in Guadeloupe they have an international airport
with more flights coming in and out so I would have
a better chance getting a flight out. After hours
and hours of waiting and talking to the officials
running the ferry service I was squeezed on the
ferry and off I went. |
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The
island of Dominica was amazingly beautiful and the
people were really nice but I still had a huge grin
on my face as the ferry pulled away and I realized I
made it off the island only the next day after the
Hurricane hit. I took some fantastic photos of the
islands as we pulled away and made a comment on how
calm the water was. Well, that changed once we got
away from the islands and in the channel that cuts
between Dominica and Guadeloupe the waves became
large and the boat ride was beginning to get rough.
It only took 5 minutes of this and the throwing up
began. I became extremely seasick and miserable. The
only relief was that I knew this ride was only about
another 75 minutes so I had to tough it out. The sun
set and the moon was lighting up the night sky. As
we approached Guadeloupe the seas got calm again and
I was able to gain my health back. I felt worn out
and still had to figure out where I would stay in
the island of Guadeloupe and where the airport was.
No problem I thought. Communication on Dominica was
good because everyone spoke English but Guadeloupe
is a French territory so everyone speaks French. I
know broken Spanish but not a lick of French. Long
story short my time on Guadeloupe was miserable and
I got ripped off because I was not familiar with the
exchange rate and once again American Airlines let
me down. I get to the airport in the morning and all
the other airlines ticket counters are open except
American Airlines. They have a bunch of
announcements taped on their windows but they are
all in French. Now don’t you think American Airlines
is primarily flying American customers and to put
all the announcement is French is a total lack of
common sense by the company? I go to the information
counter and English is the only language they don’t
speak. The airport at Guadeloupe made no effort to
accommodate American citizens at all. After a lot of
grief I figured out how to call the 1-800 number in
the US for AA and found out a flight was leaving at
3pm to Puerto Rico. I am not going to list every
single thing American Airlines did to lose me as a
customer but I will tell you this corporation does
not care about their customers and has become so
large and powerful they have a monopoly and will
never change. I have been a loyal customer for 20
years and at times I'm willing to pay extra just to
fly American. Not anymore. They were going to leave
me stranded on an island for 2 weeks because the
amount of people stranded was too small to worry
about and they did not want to spend the money. It’s
all about saving money with these corporations and
not customer service. I took notes the entire trip
and plan on raising some serious hell with the
management in the next few weeks when I get rested
and have time to time line all the events they put me
through and request they reimburse me for the money
I had to spend because they left me on the island.
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Overall
the chase was a success and I was able to document a
powerful flash flood on a tiny island in the
Caribbean. I missed the Cat-5 status in Mexico but
it was all at night so I didn’t miss seeing
anything. The people of Dominica are amazing people
and the islands landscape is breathtaking. I owe a
huge thanks to the staff of the Garraway hotel in
Roseau and would highly recommend this hotel to
anyone going to Dominica. |
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Links of
Interest: |
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The Garraway Hotel:
www.garrawayhotel.com |
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Photographer, |
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Hurricane Dean
DVD available for personal viewing - click banner below: |
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Website copyright notice below: |
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Hurricane Dean Video, DVD, and stock photos are
copyrighted and protected under |
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United States and International
copyright laws. These video stills may not be
reproduced in any form, |
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downloaded, stored, or manipulated without prior permission from © Ultimate Chase, Inc. |
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