Gustav’s Fury!!!! 24 Hours of Rainfall & Winds
Last weekend we arrived home to Jamaica after being away for almost three weeks to witness flag waving and Olympic Medal celebrations all over Kingston. It was a fantastic feeling to arrive and see people in such happy spirits.
Then the news of Gustav, the tropical storm came early this week. This depression was not supposed to be a serious threat to Jamaica, but… fast forward to 48 hours later.
We have had this surprise storm turn on the island and dump 24 hours of heavy rainfall, with 70 miles per hour winds that ripped off many roofs and will leave several people house less.
Parishes such as Portland and St. Thomas were hit pretty severely, with many down trees on the roads and several damaged bridges. Many homes are water-logged or flooded, and are without electric power and water as I type.
My husband and I made certain we filled up our bath tub and a pail with sufficient water for personal use, and gathered lanterns, battery operated radios, towels, old newspapers for water leaks and sent out as many emails as we could, in the event of a blackout.
Hurricane Dean’s appearance last year lingers in my mind, when we were without electric power for four days and without our phone line for three months. Preparation is a good thing I told myself as I baked banana bread, filled ice trays with water, made red bean soup and hauled in all my favorite plants. I was better prepared this time and thank goodness we only suffered some minor leaks that a few trash cans catching water, towels and old newspapers solved.
I am however very concerned about the people who will now be homeless due to houses washing away (as they say here) because I am fully aware that we will not know the full extent of the storms damage until later this week. The sad thing is school is scheduled to re-open next week, so I can only hope that several of the schools did not loose roofs as well.
So after a week of joyful celebrations for the medal haul in Beijing our little Island in the sun is faced with heartaches.
Everything however will be alright, as Jamaicans are accustomed to set backs and are great at comebacks. Onward we all go.
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