Scott Bulat was vacationing in the Samana Peninsula with his family when Hurricane Irma triggered an emergency evacuation.
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Bulat, along with his wife and mother-in-law, were staying at a resort on an island in the Dominican Republic when the storm started to blow in.
They were bussed to another resort four hours away in Punta Cana on Tuesday, as Irma approached the Caribbean.
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The storm was expected to hit the area at around 3 a.m. local time Thursday.
“We are all safe,” Bulat said in an email to Global News Thursday morning. “The eye of the storm passed in the night about 110 miles north of Punta Cana. We are all OK here and no heavy damage.
“We are still experiencing higher than normal winds and on-and-off heavy showers.”
He said the resort did a great job preparing for the incoming storm.
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“They’ve taken ceiling fans down in the open areas, lobbies, all the outside lights that are on poles, they’ve taken the lights off the top of them. All the speakers they have, they’ve either taken them down or wrapped them in tarps and rope,” Bulat said.
“They’ve done a really good job of making it safe on this resort.”
On Wednesday, he said the resort closed the last bar at around 6 p.m. and told all guests to go to their rooms.
“They did bring everybody food. We got breakfast and we got a sandwich for supper, a box of Fruit Loops, some milk, some water, some fruit… just a little to to get through the night and tomorrow morning in hopes of tomorrow afternoon things being straightened up around here.”
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For Bulat and his family, the question is: what’s next? They’re not scheduled to fly home until Sept. 16.
“We, as of Friday…don’t know where we’re going. Are we staying here? Going back to the other resort?
“It’s been tough to find some of the information online because they’re overcrowded.”
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