Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-24
A WEST INDIAN HURRICANE.
Things That Happen When Il
Really Rains Hard in Jamaica.


Have you ever been through West
Indian hurricane?' said a member of
party discussing the recent storm In Ja~
maica. do you want to know what the
experience is IKE?
"A hurricane will leap out of a clear
sky. swoop down on a city, blow every
thing in It's path nat and pass on. Then
follows the tail OF the hurricane, steady
breeze blowing in the same direction. but
at q much lower velocity. This Is likely
to continue for many hours. sometimes
for many days, and is always accompa-
MED by q torrential downpour Of rain
II was in Kingston. Jamaica. at the
time of the hurricane of 1903. At
o'clock in the afternoon i was In my
ONCE on the top floor of rickety wooden
building. As suddenly as = clap OF tnun-
der the room went dark.
Il had a pretty good idea Of what was
about to happen and going to the WIN
dow. looked out across the roofs. A black
cloud had whirled up out OF the south
west, obecuring the sun, but the noun
tains back Of the city were still golden
with light.
IN less than q quarter of an hour the
Z wind reached US. The hrst structure tnat
went was a wooden watch tower about
2O feet high, that had been used in the
old days to locate ships approaching the
harbor. 1t had weathered all previous
hurricanes, but this time 1t went down
like a house Of cards. Spars of lumber
from that tower were carried as far as
twenty blocks before they came to the
ground.
Then the spire of a church went, the
roofs of a good many residences were
torn of. and some fine palm trees In the
public gardens snapped of about half
way from the ground. Buildings In King
ston. however, are calculated to stand
pretty severe blow. They are built only
: few stories high and the roofs
present a broad and comparatively fiat
z surface to the wind. Considering the We
locity at which that hurricane was trav-
cling. the damage was not great. even
my crazy Office building wfthstood It..
but the tail of the thing followed. with
a heavier rain than 1 have ever seen be-
fore or since. To say that it came down
in bucketfuls would be mild 1t was as
if the clerk of the weather had taken
the plug out Of some huge vat suspended
above our heads and allowed the water
to plump straight down on US.
'In three hours the macadam on the
streets had been washed into the harbor.
The street outside my window was a
rushing river as much as four feet deep
in places. I saw cart try to cross 1t.
but with the water above the axle OF the
away from under 1t 1t was an impossible
task and the driver turned back. Big
casks and packing cases were dancing
on the surface like corks.
las you can imagine. I did not get
home to supper that evening. 1t was 8
o'clock before the rain stopped and the
water In the streets had drained into the
harbor. Even then trafic had not begun
TO reorganize itself.
THE trolley car tracks had been
washed out and no cars were running.
Cabs, however. were doing a roaring bust
ness and eventually 1 got a cabnan to
drive me home for three times his Gus
tomary charge.
The damage to property In Kingston
mounted up to hundreds of thousands Of
dollars. but the real destruction was
wrought in the country districts. Floods
wiped out many a negro village and sent
the fimsy houses floating down the riv-
ers. The railroads were tide up for nearly
a week. Every banana tree In the path
OF the hurricane was uprooted. Oh, yes,
a West Indian hurricane can do a lot Of
damage when IL gets busy.
Loss OF life. did you say? OF course
there was. Nearly 300 people were killed
throughout the island on that occasion
but we grow accustomed to that in the
West Indies. We expect a hurricane every
once in a while and we know that II will
II you had been telling the story. you
would probably have mentioned that first
of all, but sudden death 10 SO common be-
low the tropic of Cancer that Ee get cal
lous. / suppose