Hurricane Evan Part 2: The Aftermath

Hurricane Evan Part 2: The Aftermath

The Hurricane did tons of damage. The rivers and creeks overflowed and washed away homes and everything in their paths and flooded ...

Our property at Malifa had several meters of property washed away. Luckily the trees and plants I had planted mimimised the loss. After the Hurricane I could not help noticing how the root systems of the avocado trees, Indonesian Wax Roses and Torch Gingers could be seen holding the remaining embankment together. These avocado trees that certain people had criticised me for planting. Interestingly and sadly I could not help wondering how much more would have been saved had the breadfruit trees and Fuafua trees that had been chopped down had  been retained.

 

 

 

It never ceases to amaze and infuriate me how despite all the talk of not cutting trees along waterways and all the programmes and blah blah about how important these and plants growing along the waterways are in preventing soil erosion etc ... people still have this demented urge to cut trees down and clear land on the banks of waterways.

I know grass is a plant but the root systems of lawns will do very little to prevent erosion. As for cutting down sickly or unsightly trees or trees that are too big and pose a danger in high winds; that is fine as long as you replace them with another tree. Actually my preference is for the rule of planting at least two trees for every tree you cut down.

Unfortunately here in Samoa there is this insane mania for cutting down trees and either not replacing them or replacing them with what I call excuses for trees.

Torch Gingers before Cyclone Evan (Malifa)

 Torch gingers after Cyclone Evan (Malifa)

Yet even with all the death and destruction caused by the cyclone nature is resuming its activity and there are some startling moments of surreal beauty all the more stunning because of the stark contrast between the destruction and devastation surrounding you.

 

The only good thing about the hurricane is that all that rain has the zepheranthes all popping up with flower buds. Mind you it is possible that this would have happened anyway as it is the rainy season although the sudden emergence of so many buds where previously there were none is astonishing. Maybe I did not really notice them when I looked a few days before the hurricane but I am sure I would have noticed because I do recall seeing a handful here and there and mentally rubbing my hands thinking of all the seeds I would have once they flower are pollinated and seed.

Photo of Zepheranthes flower buds

But now its a totally different story as there are a multitude of buds and the seed load will be exponentially bountiful indeed.

Here are some pictures of all the flower buds practically bursting to flower.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

 Facts:

Cyclone Evan struck the Samoan archipelago on 13 December 2012. It was rated as Tropical Cyclone Category 4.
The Samoan archipelago is comprised of the Independent State of Samoa and the American Territory of American Samoa.

Additional information:

Here my current blogs:

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

Hurricane Evan PART 1

Hurricane Evan PART 1

Not long after I arrived in Samoa Hurricane Evan struck ... pretty much without warning. I say that not merely because on the morning of the hurricane I was delighted with the rainy weather and taking advantage of it to do some gardening: planting some cuttings of Indonesian Wax Roses and weeding the tautalaititi out of the Zepheranthes beds. No ... I say it struck without warning because although the night before there was some public announcement warning that scrolled across the screen briefly on the TV that was about high winds and possible flooding in low lying areas, but nothing about a cyclone.  Maybe there was one but I did not see or hear anything and no one mentioned anything about a Cyclone approaching to me.

It was only as the evening approached and I commented on how the constant rain and wind seemed like pre-cyclone weather that I found out that there was indeed a cyclone approaching. Someone said that that was supposed to have been passing by us but then decided to stop by for a visit.

As for me planting things in the rain that is how I prefer to do things as otherwise it is just too hot. For me rainy weather is perfect planting weather. It is cool and overcast and the rain is not only refreshing but saves me having to go around watering everything. Preferably I try to do major transplanting into the ground during the Rainy Season which also just happens to be the Cyclone Season.

No biggie it was windy in the morning and throughout the day but the Cyclone did not really hit till that night and lasted throughout the next day and night.
 

During the cyclone we could not do much else but sit around looking outside. Fortunately the house at Alafua has a long overhang and even with all the wind not much rain got into the house even though it has big screened windows without louvers.  I cannot recall who drew the plans of the house but I like their thinking since the wide overhang all around keeps it well shaded and there is absolutely no need for louvers which I hate with a passion. I was even able to go out during a slight lull in the cyclone and take some pictures and videos of some of the damage although the quality of the images are not that great. This is because I do not have a waterproof camera and the only way I could take photos was to stick it in a clear plastic ziplock bag and seal it in and then go outside. I stayed mainly under the overhang of the house but also went to the old butchery shed but after a while all the rain drops on the plastic made taking photos pointless.

Here are some pictures of the cyclone viewed at Alafua. The pictures do not really give a good idea of the strength on the winds. According to reports there were gusts of up to 210 km/h (130 mph). The wind uprooted lots of trees or broke branches off. The rivers and creeks overflowed and washed away homes and everything in their paths and there was considerable flooding in all the low-lying areas especially in Downtown Apia such as Taufusi, Fugalei, Lalovaea, Maluafou and Mulivai areas.

PHOTO of Cyclone Evan

PHOTO of Cyclone Evan

PHOTO of Cyclone Evan

PHOTO of Cyclone Evan

PHOTO of Cyclone Evan

PHOTO of Cyclone Evan

 

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

 

Facts:

Cyclone Evan struck the Samoan archipelago on 13 December 2012. It was rated as Tropical Cyclone Category 4.

 

The Samoan archipelago is comprised of the Independent State of Samoa and the American Territory of American Samoa.

 

Additional information:

As I said I will be posting the photographs of the statues on another blog which will cover “A blog about art, sculpture, food, history, culture, literature among other things. Basically this blog will be a catch all for other topics that I cannot logically cover in my existing blogs:

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

 

or some planned blogs

·          fait justicia ruat coelum - Let Justice be done though the Heavens Fall (Socio Legal issues):

·          ventus me vocat – The Wind calls me (Occult and esoteric matters, Ancient beliefs and belief systems, magic and religion): http://ventusmevocat.blogspot.com/