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Wednesday morning 6:30am. I couldn’t gauge the time very well because the usual light from a sunrise was concealed by the racing bands of clouds over the mountains to the East. Oh yes, an unwelcomed visitor was expected today.. Hurricane Sandy is her name and destruction is her aim.
The night before, both TV Channels were running stories of whole communities that were precariously close to isolation due to recent rains or houses along the extensive system of gullies that were hanging on by a thread delaying the impending and inevitable collapse into the gully bottom.
An already beaten down country from an poor economy, a trillion plus in debt and the exchange rate must now somehow absorb the physical punishment Sandy would surely inflict. But, Jamaicans are a tough and resilient people who have a long history of survival and excelling under far worse circumstances. After a quick shower and dressing appropriately for the deteriorating weather, I stepped out on the verandah. I noticed right away just how quiet the town was for a weekday morning. The usual laughter and pounding footsteps of children running to school has been replaced by the sounds of an occasional hammer securing property and the constant rustling of banana tree leaves in the increasing wind and a light popping sound of raindrops bouncing off the leaves.
Somewhere up the road I could hear a “whup-whup” sound and it was getting closer. I saw Marshall appear from the bush with two pieces of “zinc” flopping up and down making the strange sound. He referred to the metal as “zinc” but it was actually the metal shell of a discarded refrigerator flattened out into a sort of sheet. He explained that he was going to make a brace across the rear of the house to divert the heavy rainfall away from the rear doorways and the run-off to go into a gully he had previously dug along the side of the house.
At 9:45am, the current cut off. This happens occasionally on a fair weather day so very little concern is shown on the faces of the town’s residents. The wind and rain are more constant now with punctuations of high gusts and torrential downpours. Most of the talk around town centers on “Jamaica git boxed but Haiti get worse” as compassion for those in greater need runs deep for their fellow man.
Somewhere around 2:30pm now and it’s been almost 5 hours without current and communications as no one seems to have a battery operated radio and, if they did, no good batteries anyways. Plus, if you wanted to purchase some, “Tough Luck” as not a single store here in Accompong Town sells them! I know, having lived in Florida for a time with a half dozen hurricanes under my belt, that things will not be too bad here. The wind-driven rain has shifted from Southeast to North-Northeast meaning the eye of the storm is passing somewhere to the East of our location. The temperature drop during the day was drastic forcing us to put on long pants and sweatshirts for comfort.
Sometime around midnight the current returned and a sense of closure from the storm replaced uncertainty making it more comfortable to sleep. We arose at sunrise but could not see it as the rain clouds hung heavily across the mountains. The dawn revealed that we lost one banana plant and we won’t have to climb a tree for a breadfruit now as Sandy brought down a few as a favor.
Today will be a rainy day but the accompanying winds are nearly gone. Life gets back to normal as children run and stomp through puddles of water laughing and singing being so happy that school is called off for the day. The memory of Sandy will be fleeting like a messy guest after whom you clean up and shut the door; ready for what tomorrow brings.
Peace and Guidance