Hurricane Igor Pounds Marystown

Hi all:

Just a little note to update you on the effects of Hurricane Igor who pounded the Burin Peninsula and Eastern Newfoundland on Monday and Tuesday past. It was probably the worst ever storm to hit our area. There are reports of 239 mm of rain in St. Lawrence, 197 mm in Bonavista and 120 mm in St. John's as well as wind gusts to 137 in St. John's and 130+ in Grand Bank. We didn't seem to have high wind gusts here in Marystown but we had lots of rain. You have to remember that all this rain came in less than a 24 hour period so the town's infrastructure just wasn't able to keep up with the amount of water that fell. From some of the photos of Marystown below you can see how much water we had to deal with.

We had a little water in one end of our basement - in the laundry room. I think it may have come in through a window there as the window is sent in a little window well and it filled with water. There was not water there at 4:00am but by 8:00am we did have some. I had it cleaned up in a couple of hours. We got off very lightly as you may have seen from some of the video on national tv news shows.

Even though there was a state of emergency here in town on Tuesday, we fared much better than other towns especially those in the Clarenville area. There was a lot more destruction of trees, roads, bridges in those areas. However, a lot of people had up to 5 feet of water in their homes. I talked to one lady last night whose basement flooded as the storm sewer backed up and she had 21 inches of water come in. She had just done her basement last year and it looks like everything was spoiled.

On the Burin Peninsula, the road is washed out between St. Lawrence and Lawn, as well as bewteen Grand Bank and Marystown, the road to Petite Forte, the road to Terrenceville and the bridge on the BP highway at Rattle Brook collapsed so we are cut off from the rest of the island. These other places are isolated. On Thursday, gas stations are out of gas and there isn't a lot of fresh food to go around. Apparently there is a "bailey bridge" on the way and should be in place tomorrow afternoon to allow trucks through with food, gas, etc. This is a portable prefabricated bridge used by the military to temporarily put in place without any special tools or equipment but allows fairly heavy equipment to pass over it. Right now the target to get that in place is Friday afternoon.

However right now reports are that it will take over $100 million dollars to makes repairs to roads, homes, etc. over the next few weeks and months.

Below are some photos taken by other people of the Marystown area as well as a few from our golf course which received no structural damage but did have a lot of flooding. It should be open again by Friday or Saturday.

Hope this gives you all some idea of what we faced. I have included on the photo the area shown there.

Take care.
Regards.
Barry

Nicole's Screech-in Party

Me again:
We had a great time the last night that Cheryl and Nicole were here in Marystown as we decided that since Nicole had done the "best kind" in taking part in all of our Newife related activities she deserved to be "Screeched In". She tried foods such as trout, cod cheeks and tongues, toutons, jiggs dinner, salt fish, fresh fish, caribou and practised her Newfoundland sayings all week.
In a traditional Newfoundland "Screech In" you have to talk, sing, eat and drink like a Newfoundlander and kiss the almighty "Cod" on the lips. Complete all these tasks successfully and you will be dubbed an "Honarary Newfoundlander". I am happy to report that Nicole did complete all those tasks with flying colors and "by the power invested in me", with the tap of an oar I officially dubbed her an "Honarary Newfoundlander".
Below I have included some photos of each step of the ceremony as well as a couple of other photos taken a little while after. Included in some of the photos are Boyd, Therese, Gladys's brother Gerard and his son Evan on the guitar who provided the music for "Ise da Bye" which Nicole had to sing on her own.

1. Talk - say in good old Newfoundland English, "Fine, bye long may your big jib draw!"

2. Sing - sing the first verse of the traditional Newfoundland song, "Ise da Bye"

3. Eat - down a chunk of Newfoundland steak - bologna

4. Drink - down an ounce of Newfoundland Screech

5. Kiss the cod on the lips. Long enough to get a good photo.

6. Tap on the shoulders with an oar to complete ceremony.

7. Present the Official Certificate

Enjoy.
Barry

Cheryl and Nicole's Visit to Marystown

Hi all:

Cheryl came home for a visit from August 20-29 and her friend, Nicole Frew, from Toronto came to visit Newfoundland for the first time. They arrived in St. John's on Friday night, went to dinner and of course, then to George Street which is a must visit for any newcomer to the Rock. After listening to some traditional Newfie music at O'Rielly's, they took in the downtown area on Saturday morning and afternoon. Gladys had to work Saturday so when she was finished we drove to town and met the girls for dinner at Atlantica Restaurant in St. Phillips. On Sunday morning we took in the sights of St. John's, had fish and chips in St. Phillips and took in a tour boat ride searching for whales. We did see a couple of humpbacks and Gladys did get two great photos which are included below. In the afternoon we visited the Basilica, signed the book at Government House, and visited the Newman Wine Vaults. Sunday evening we went to dinner and all four of us went to O'Rielly's on Sunday night.

We came back to Marystown on Monday after taking a side trip to Dildo for lunch. We toured the Boot for the rest of the week except Wednesday when we took a day excursion to St. Pierre. I have included some photos of the colourful houses, narrow streets, and graveyard over there. One photo also shows some capstans - which are used to pull up small boats. Most of the Stacey's should be familiar with those having grown up in Lamaline. On our return from St. Pierre we drove to Lamaline to have a look and take some photos. You can see a few there taken on the Meadow with Green Island and Allan's Island in the background. We also had a short visit with Bernie and Ron while there. By the end of the week we had looked at most every little town on the Peninsula from Rock Harbour to Allan's Island.

Cheryl came at this time as the Brennan's were celebrating Mrs. Brennan's 80th birthday and as you can see from a photo there she hasn't changed much over the years. She is still doing well.

On their last night in Marystown, we had a little Screech-in party here at our house for Nicole and I will post some photos from that in a separate section. We drove them back to St. John's on Sunday and they flew back to TO early Monday morning.

A great time was had by all.

Enjoy!
Barry