The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1910-03-09
4 BLOW IN JAMAICA
Things That Happen When a Big
Storm Breaks Loose There.
A WEST INDIAN HURRICANE.

Il Viii Leap Out OF Clear Sky and
Level Almost Everything in Its
Path Then Comes Torrentiai
oown2our That Ends In Flood.
Have you c:cr been through West
Indian hurricane: said man who
has lived in the tropics Oh and or for
q number OF years. do You want TO
know what the experience is like:
~ hurricane vii! leap OUT Of Z clear
sSs. swoop down on I city. blow ev-
e-ythins in its path fat and pass on.
Then follows the tail Of the hurricane.
. steady breeze blowing in the same
direction. but 1T much lower re!oci-
". This IS likely to continue for
many hours, sometimes for many days,
and is always accompanied by tor
rental downpour OF rain.
II was IN Kingston. Jamaica. 1t the
,iu,o OF the hurricane Of 1865. At 5
O'clock in the afternoon was in NY
Office on the top foo- OF rickety
woode. building. As suddenly rs
clap Of thunder the room weat dark
u had pretty good idea Of waa;
was about TO happen ::ad. going 10 inc
window, looked out across the 'ooiS-
\ black cloud had wh;.led up out o.
the southwest. obscurins the sun. oat
the mountains back oe the city were
still golden with light
In less than quarter Of aa hour
the wind reached Us. The first Struc-
tu-e that went was wooden watch
tower about 200 feet high that had
been used in the old days to locate
ships approaching the barber. II hac
weathered oil previous hurricanes. but
this time it went down Ike house o.
cards. Spars OF lumber from that
tower were carried as Tar as twenty
blocks before they came to the ground
Then the spire Of the church went.
tie roofs c. good many residences
we're torn or, and some fine palm trees
IN the public gardens snapped OF about
halfway from the ground. Buildings Ia
Kingston, however. are calculated to
stand . pretty severe blow. They are
built only q few stories high. anG the
roofs present broad and compara-
tiyelv fat surface to the wind. Consld-
erin. the velocity at which that ouGrl-
cane was travelling. the damage was
not great. Even my crazy office build
toc w!,hs,ood it. Bu, the tail OF the
thing followed. with BEAVER ram
than I have ever seen before or since
To say that It came down in bucket
fuls would be mild. Il was rs If the
clerk OF the weather bad taken the
plu. oa, Of some huge vat suspended
above our heads and allowed the va
ter TO plump straight dowa On Us
an three hours the macadam on the
streets had been washed into tie bar
Dor. The strees outside my window
was rushing river as much as fous
feet deep IN places ] saw . cart Try
10 cross it. but with the water above
the axle Of the wheel and the horse,s
les being washed away from uEoar i
4 was m impossible task. Dad the
driver turned back. Big casks anc
packing cases were dancing 90 the sur
face like ccrss.
las you can imagine. did not get
home TO supper that evening. 1t was 5
O'clock before the rain stopped aac the
water in the streets had drained into
the h=rbor. Even then tr:.iic had not
begun 20 .corsan;ze itself
The trolley Cur tracks bad been
washed out. ard no cars were run
nin:. Cabs. however. were doing Z
roaring business. and eventually got
2 cabman to drive me home for saTee
times his customary charge.
The damage 10 property in King
ston mounted rp to hundreds OF thou
sands OF dollars, but the real destTuc'
ton was wrought in the country dis
t-;cts Floods wiped out many negro
village and sent the aimsy houses
floating down the rivers. The ratlroacs
were tied up for nearly week Every
banana tree il the path OF the hurr:'
cane was uDroo;ed- Oh. yes. West
Indian hurricane can do lot OF DAM
age when it gets busy.
0Loss Of life. did you say? OF course
there was. Nearly 200 people were
killed throughout the island on that oc-
casion, but we grow accustomed TO
that in the West Indies We expect
hurricane every once n awhile. and
we Know that {. vii! take its toll OF
human ,:fe when ie comes II you had
been telling the story you would prob
ably have mentioned that first OF oil.
hut sudden death is 50 common below
the t-oplc OF Cancer that we get cal
:ous. ! suppose-"-New York Snn