POST HURRICANE UPDATE: Despite direct passage of the eye, fortunately Ernesto decreased to Cat1 just before passage and Nonsuch had relatively little damage. Our SurfaceCam which has endured multiple stronger hurricanes over the years did not survive and is in the process of being upgraded and replaced.
UPDATE Aug 18th 2024 J-P Rouja: The LiveStream stayed live until 7:30 am on the 17th with an archived loop seen below. The Hurricane has now passed and the team is waiting on getting our vessels back in the water so that we can go and do a damage assessment, however we are not anticipating good news due to the almost 24hr onslaught of storm and hurricane force ocean swells on the coastline… Please stay tuned for more info.
The southern, ocean-facing side of Nonsuch, which is located on the South East corner of Bermuda, is bearing the full brunt of this Hurricane with 120+ mph winds and 30ft waves expected by Saturday morning, which when combined with storm surge and high tide at 7am is going to be disastrous to Nonsuch, but especially the surrounding nesting islands…
In past Hurricanes Nonsuch’s completely off-grid solar power coupled with the Nonsuch Expedtion’s remote cameras and wireless internet have remained live throughout the storms broadcasting a LiveStream from the SurfaceCam in Cahow Translocation Colony A. Please find the current LiveStream embeded below along with updates that our team will post as long as conditions allow throughout the Hurricane. Big thanks to Digicel for the internet access once our signal reaches them on the Bermuda mainland.
Replay of Live view from Nonsuch Translocation Colony A (scroll back in timeline to review)
6am Update from J-P Rouja: We are now passing through the eye of Ernesto and with sunrise approaching we should finally see the waves that have been pounding Nonsuch and the outer nesting islands throughout the night. Whilst the closest approach of the Hurricane has passed, we will still be dealing with storm-surge on top of the high tide at 7am. Stay tuned for more updates…
10pm Update from J-P Rouja: Though I had lost my power by 4pm, our Nonsuch LiveStream is still going and throughout the day was picked up internationally by CNN, Weather Channel, Reuters and countless others… As of right now we are only seeing the what the infrared lights can reach, which does not include the water, however if we are still live at sunrise we will witness the full force of Hurricane waves on top of storm-surge, and a high tide at 7am, which will undoubtedly look impressive but is going to be disastrous to Nonsuch and the surrounding nesting islands…
Friday Update from: Jeremy Madeiros: My assistant Peter Drew and the Conservation Crew spent Tuesday clearing 2 boatloads of plastic flotsam from Nonsuch that we had been collecting for over a year for local schools to analyze, and took it ashore to store so that it would not be spread all over the Castle Harbour Islands.
I joined Peter on Nonsuch on Wednesday so we could secure all doors and windows on the buildings there, and took some equipment ashore, dodging thunderstorms and showers. I also surveyed a couple of the islands for low-lying Tropicbird (Longtail) nests to see if any chicks were left, luckily all chicks at risk have already fledged from Southampton Island (not the Parish), but I did have to move a nearly fully-fledged chick from Nonsuch Island and take it ashore in a box, as its nest is probably underwater by now.
It is now one of 6 Tropicbird chicks that are being cared for by Wildlife rehabilitator Lynn Thorne, she has a generator to keep the Anchovies and squid needed to feed them frozen, while my forest-surrounded house will certainly loose power (we have already had gusts to 55 knots/63 mph, and my lights are already flickering). I anticipate the smaller nesting islands will take a battering as hurricane Ernesto is slowing down as it approaches, with hurricane-force winds commencing in the late evening and possibly lasting until midday tomorrow.
Good luck everyone!