Friday, October 11, 2013

Big Storm Last Night Damages Harbor



  
Our day continued yesterday after we finished with the wifi at the B&B; Bonnie and Jane arrived from their day trip to Capri just as we finished before five o’clock.    We all walked up to the apartment and enjoyed their stories of the trip to Capri.   They enjoyed the chair lift ride up to the top of the mountain but missed the boat for the ride around the island and the exciting tiny boat ride into the cavern that is usually the highlight of a trip to Capri.  They were late in leaving and the only tickets left for returning were the early ones; four o’clock was the last boat with tickets available when they purchased their tickets. 
They had purchased delicious cookies in Capri and we opened the wine and enjoyed the treat while we played several rounds of the card game “hearts” while listening to their stories and sharing our day with the Hop On and Off bus.  About seven o’clock we cooked our pasta, put the salad together and enjoyed a dinner together in the apartment; our first since Siena.  By this time the rain had begun; we’d assumed it would stop as it has every night before.    By eight o’clock they decided they should head for their hotel even though there was no break in the rain as the last buses were leaving soon.   They had plastic ponchos and we gave them our umbrellas.  There were still buses in the harbor who were loading the last boats that were arriving from Capri.   They climbed aboard and headed up the hill to Piazza Tasso.  They ended up walking the mile to their hotel in the rain.  They called us on the cell phone after they’d arrived.  No trip downstairs for wifi calls home tonight.  We used the Italian Cell phone, called Jim in California for a brief talk and he called Phil in Florida to let him know we were okay.
To bed about ten o’clock and then the fun began.  There are lots of photos in the slideshow of our night and this morning.   The rain continued and increased in intensity.  The volume of water coursing down the street became very deep and flowed into the side streets below our building.  Soon it had lifted a large concrete lid that covered the sewer system; it was covered with extremely heaving stones as it was also part of the street.   Water and mud was coursing into the buildings and in to the hotel lobby that is located directly under the cliff.
They opened a manhole cover in the street to relieve some of the pressure and then the officials started to arrive.  And, they continued to arrive until noon the next day.  By midnight we had a fire truck, pumper trucks; a small tractor with a scoop arrived about one o’clock.  That scrapper worked most of the night scrapping mud off of the public area so that when tourists arrived in the morning they would not be walking in mud.   The noise was terrible and no one in our building was sleeping, except for Mary who had taken a sleeping pill!   She missed all the fun!   Many officials continued to arrive all night.
Cleaning up the mud seemed very important, but not so for our area including the first ten feet into our building; so we are walking through two inches of mud to get to the steps to our apartment.  They pumped water out of the hotel and storage rooms on the first floor.  About two o’clock I gave up watching and put in the ear plugs and headed for bed.  Woke at seven o’clock to even more noise.  The cleanup continued until noon.  But the buses and taxis continued to bring tourists; the little white train started running and boats came and left to go to Capri.   Other than stopping to look at the damage; life continued.
We’ve enjoyed our morning watching all of the activity.  It looks like it’s going to rain again soon.  We’re hoping to go between drops to the B&B for some wifi time.
Hope you enjoy the slideshow of the power of rain in Sorrento Harbor: 

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