WOW 24 YEARS

Twenty-one years after Gilbert
BY KARYL WALKER [email protected]
Sunday, September 13, 2009

THE 2009 Atlantic Hurricane season has been one of the most quiet in recent memory.

However, despite the quiet season, Jamaicans, especially those over 30, will still have fresh memories of Gilbert – the deadly category four hurricane which left a trail of destruction across the island 21 years ago on September 12, 1988. The hurricane, which blew roofs off a number of houses, uprooted trees and utility poles and destroyed crops, took the lives of 21 people in its deadly rampage as it packed winds of 175 mph. On September 12, 1988, hours before Gilbert made landfall, a number of Jamaicans did not take the threat seriously as the majority of the population had never experienced the wrath of a hurricane of that magnitude. But it has changed the way Jamaicans, especially the sceptics, view hurricanes. Ronald Jackson, director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), said the nation will never be allowed to be caught napping again as the ODPEM has been working consistently with community organisations to keep the public on their toes. “It took us a while to get the public to hear the message and heed the message. This was occasioned by an improvement in the organisation’s programmes of working deliberately with community groups. There was also an improvement in the transition of early warnings,” Jackson said. After side-stepping Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Hurricane Gilbert charted a head-on course for Jamaica and entered the island at its eastern end. Gilbert boasted a 40-mile-wide eye and covered the entire island.

The corrugated zinc roofs that covered most homes were no match for the high velocity winds which accounted for about 80 per cent of the island’s homes being seriously damaged and rendered thousands homeless. Gilbert ground its way across the country and no parish was spared its wrath. By the time the first wave of the onslaught had passed over the island the extent of the damage told a sorry tale. Most roofs and satellite dishes were blown away. Sheets of zinc swirled dangerously like pieces of paper and landed miles away from the houses they once sheltered. Almost every house and many businesses were damaged by the powerful hurricane. Also damaged were hotels, schools and churches. But Gilbert was not yet finished with the island and began a new onslaught after the eye of the Hurricane had passed over.
Then the winds came from a westerly direction and completed the destruction the initial onslaught had started. Jackson said the ODPEM and the wider society had learnt many lessons from the experience and were now more aware what it takes to minimise the damage that can be caused by hurricanes. “Very little initiative was made in implementing proper building of roofing, the use of hurricane straps, the design of the roof and the technical component of how rafters are spaced,” Jackson told the Sunday Observer. When the hurricane finally decided to let up and move on to pummel the Cancun and Cozumel areas of Mexico, the Jamaican landscape had been significantly altered. A large portion of the country’s banana, vegetable and sugar cane farms had been destroyed. Hundreds of trees were uprooted and livestock farmers were left to dispose of farm animals who had perished in the hurricane.

There were also other downsides to the hurricane as many persons, who showed scant regard for the warnings which were sent out about the dangers of a hurricane, looted businesses and made off with appliances, food and other goods as Gilbert raged. The looters came from a wide cross section of society and even included police officers, several of whom were caught red-handed and charged. With Jamaica reeling from the effects of Gilbert’s mighty blows, the international community rallied in support of the country and donated millions of dollars worth of aid, including shipments of zinc which were to be distributed to those who had been staring at the stars through what was once their roofs. However, a major scandal erupted after claims that the zinc was being unfairly distributed and at times being sold by nefarious persons emerged. Reports at the time were that a great portion of the donated zinc was dumped into the Caribbean Sea rather than being used for their intended purpose.

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