We in Jamaica seem set to get a taste of hurricane Sandy which the meteorologists tell us will be a category one hurricane when it hits us later today, Wednesday 24th October 2012. So far, we have been having steady rain since yesterday morning, but nothing catastrophic and I hope it will remain that way.
If it really develops into a hurricane anyway, it can never be a s bad as hurricane Gilbert which was a category 5 hurricane and which totally devastated the island in 1988. I remember it like it was yesterday for as usual, I never make preparations for these hurricanes despite the many warnings. This is because I live in a hurricane zone and every single year of my life , I hear warnings of impending hits by hurricanes and they never come. So when Gilbert came, I was playing dominoes with my fiends and we never stopped playing until the lights went.
As I have slab roof at home, the damage to the house itself was minimal and my kids, Thor and Michele and I just sat it out playing board games until we were tired. It was the after effects that were terrible for we never got back light for 6 weeks and of course we had not stocked up on food.
Can you imagine 6 weeks without light? Thank god I have the ability to block our bad memories so I remember very little about how we coped, except that I cannot drink water which is not chilled for I still recall how terrible the warm water we were forced to drink tasted. That is because we had to boil the water so it got very little opportunity to even cool properly, but I remember very little else.
When I got the real bad hit was with hurricane Gustav in August 2008. As usual, I paid it little attention as it was a Category 1 hurricane but I could have done nothing to prevent the devastation it brought. What caused the problem was my governments refusal to properly maintain the infrastructure.
In my case, my backyard joins a gully. You know as a Realtor, whenever I try to introduce people to a home adjoining a gully, they always resist. I would counter by saying that I have lived by a gully for almost 30 years and most times didn't even remember that one was behind me.
Well I no longer say that for as we say here "What nebba happen in a year happen in a day" and it is so true. For as I slept peacefully as Gustav raged outside, my tenant woke me up to say the backyard was full of water. I said fine and went back to sleep. Then he called again and when I looked again, I realised that the greenery had gone from my backyard and what remained was nothing but water! In a split second I was out of my bed, called my neighbour Sunshine who lives above me on the other side of the road and begged her to allow me to seek refuge in her home!
I couldn't sleep the entire night thinking my house would have disappeared into the dirty, gushing water and worse, I had not even stopped to bring any important documents with me or even any clothes .
The next morning, I timidly returned home and the sight was shocking, for while the house remained unscathed, the entire backyard had disappeared leaving only about 3 inches of dirt between the back of my house and the deep chasm that had once been a gully wall. My neighbours on both sides suffered similar fate, though I got the worse of it.
Well thank God, Sandy has now passed after ranting and raging outside for some three or four hours yesterday and all is almost well. I did lose a small fiberglass tile from the roof of my bathroom and water had poured into both the bathroom and bedroom, but that only required me doing some heavy mopping before going to bed last night, with the welcome assistance of some Vodka . I am one of the lucky ones, for Sandy had damaged the power lines passed, and unlike 70% of electricity users islandwide, I still had power and water.
So whats to complain about? Nothing. However, I pledge to be more prepared next year....... at least taking the warnings seriously! But why, for what could I have done to prevent a small tile form flying off with the wind?
If it really develops into a hurricane anyway, it can never be a s bad as hurricane Gilbert which was a category 5 hurricane and which totally devastated the island in 1988. I remember it like it was yesterday for as usual, I never make preparations for these hurricanes despite the many warnings. This is because I live in a hurricane zone and every single year of my life , I hear warnings of impending hits by hurricanes and they never come. So when Gilbert came, I was playing dominoes with my fiends and we never stopped playing until the lights went.
As I have slab roof at home, the damage to the house itself was minimal and my kids, Thor and Michele and I just sat it out playing board games until we were tired. It was the after effects that were terrible for we never got back light for 6 weeks and of course we had not stocked up on food.
Can you imagine 6 weeks without light? Thank god I have the ability to block our bad memories so I remember very little about how we coped, except that I cannot drink water which is not chilled for I still recall how terrible the warm water we were forced to drink tasted. That is because we had to boil the water so it got very little opportunity to even cool properly, but I remember very little else.
When I got the real bad hit was with hurricane Gustav in August 2008. As usual, I paid it little attention as it was a Category 1 hurricane but I could have done nothing to prevent the devastation it brought. What caused the problem was my governments refusal to properly maintain the infrastructure.
In my case, my backyard joins a gully. You know as a Realtor, whenever I try to introduce people to a home adjoining a gully, they always resist. I would counter by saying that I have lived by a gully for almost 30 years and most times didn't even remember that one was behind me.
Well I no longer say that for as we say here "What nebba happen in a year happen in a day" and it is so true. For as I slept peacefully as Gustav raged outside, my tenant woke me up to say the backyard was full of water. I said fine and went back to sleep. Then he called again and when I looked again, I realised that the greenery had gone from my backyard and what remained was nothing but water! In a split second I was out of my bed, called my neighbour Sunshine who lives above me on the other side of the road and begged her to allow me to seek refuge in her home!
I couldn't sleep the entire night thinking my house would have disappeared into the dirty, gushing water and worse, I had not even stopped to bring any important documents with me or even any clothes .
The next morning, I timidly returned home and the sight was shocking, for while the house remained unscathed, the entire backyard had disappeared leaving only about 3 inches of dirt between the back of my house and the deep chasm that had once been a gully wall. My neighbours on both sides suffered similar fate, though I got the worse of it.
Well thank God, Sandy has now passed after ranting and raging outside for some three or four hours yesterday and all is almost well. I did lose a small fiberglass tile from the roof of my bathroom and water had poured into both the bathroom and bedroom, but that only required me doing some heavy mopping before going to bed last night, with the welcome assistance of some Vodka . I am one of the lucky ones, for Sandy had damaged the power lines passed, and unlike 70% of electricity users islandwide, I still had power and water.
So whats to complain about? Nothing. However, I pledge to be more prepared next year....... at least taking the warnings seriously! But why, for what could I have done to prevent a small tile form flying off with the wind?
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