Word: jamaicas
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Hurricane Gilbert uprooted not only trees but lives. It chewed across the length of Jamaica, leaving 500,000 people homeless, and virtually destroying the island's economy. It slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, shattering the glassy facades of tourist hotels and destroying the homes of 30,000 residents. By the time Gilbert touched the trembling but well-prepared Gulf coast, its epic force had been muted. Still, flooding and high tides swamped beaches and highways and forced more than 100,000 people in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to flee in anticipation of its virulence...
...moved westward across the Atlantic. On Saturday, Sept. 10, about 225 miles southeast of the Dominican Republic, it was officially designated a hurricane when its winds exceeded the required 74 m.p.h. It sideswiped Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Sunday before reaching a raging fury over Jamaica on Monday. In Kingston the sky darkened and turned slate blue, as winds tore into the unprotected tropical island. Streets became rivers; trees were abruptly upended; and four out of five rooftops were ripped off. Said a U.S. airman trapped on the island: "There was no power, no water, no phones...
After Hurricane Gilbert finished howling and hammering Jamaica last Monday, the lovely green-and-gold island had been transformed into a strew of twisted, tilted, ripped and battered debris. Kingston and outlying areas alike were an immense litter of downed trees, broken utility poles, tangles of electrical wires, a vista of demolished houses and blown tin roofs. The more the stunned Jamaicans meandered among the ruins, the worse things looked. Of the 2 1/2 million inhabitants, 500,000 were suddenly homeless; four-fifths of the nation's homes had been damaged or destroyed. Obstructions blocked and sealed off streets...
Poultry farmers, fishing fleets and cultivators of exotic flowers were wasted by Gilbert. Foreign-owned shoe and clothing factories that had been lured to Jamaica's tax-free zones suffered heavy water and structural damage. The unemployment rate, already 22%, was expected to soar as jobs vanished in the wind and rain. It was easy to see a metaphor of the island's economy in the plight of the smashed Kingston bank whose checks, in the aftermath, were suddenly caught up in a wind and scattered all over the downtown. "There were checks blowing around everywhere," retired Superstar Racing...
...between Kingston and Manley Airport was flooded, and the whole island was left short of food and without safe drinking water. The airport control tower was battered out of commission, and until Thursday air traffic consisted only of military transports carrying relief supplies from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Jamaica's Caribbean neighbors. The hospital in Mandeville lost its roof, and the University Hospital of the West Indies in Mona was severely damaged. With water supplies contaminated, there is fear of an outbreak of cholera, dysentery and other diseases. Property losses will probably run to more than $500 million...