The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1910-01-14
A BLOW IN JAMAICA
Things That Happen When a Big
Storm Breaks Loose There.
A WEST INDIAN HURRICANE.

Il Win leap Out Of a Clear Sky and
Level Almost Everything In ITS
Path - Then Comes a Torrential
Downpour That Ends In a Flood.
Have you ever been through West
Indian hurricane?' said a man who
has lived in the tropics on and off for
number Of years DO you want to
know what the experience is like?
"A hurricane will leap out of clear
sky, swoop down on a city, blow ev-
erything in its path fat and pass on.
Then follows the tail of the hurricane.
a steady breeze blowing In the same
direction. but at IA much lower veIoci-
ty. This is likely TO continue for
many hours, sometimes for many days,
and Is always accompanied by tor
rental downpour of rain.
81 was in Kingston, Jamaica, at the
time Of the hurricane of 1908. At 3
o'clock In the afternoon | was in my
office on the top floor of rickety
wooden building. AS suddenly as a
clap Of thunder the room went dark.
Il had pretty good idea of what
was about to happen and, going to the
window, looked out across the roofs.
A black cloud had whirled up out of
tie southwest. obscuring the sun, but
the mountains back of the city were
still golden with light
I'm less than a quarter of an hour
the wind reached Us. The first struc-
Sure that went was a wooden watch.
tower about 200 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 house of
cards. Spars Of lumber from that
tswer were carried as far as twenty
blocks before they came to the ground.
Then the spire of the church went,
Ne roofs Of good many residences
were torn of. and some fine palm trees
m the public gardens snapped off about
halfway from the ground. Buildings in
Kingston, however, are calculated to
stand a pretty severe blow. They are
built only few stories high, and the
roofs present a broad and compare
lively fiat surface to the wind. Consid-
ering the velocity at which that hurri-
cane was travelling, the damage was
not great. Even my crazy office build
ing withstood it. But the tail of the
thing followed. with a heavier rain
than I have ever seen before or since.
To say that 1t came down In bucket
fuls 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 wa
tar to plump straight down on US.
"1n three hours the macadam on the
streets had been washed into the har-
Der. The street outside my window
was rushing river as much as four
feet deep In places. saw a cart try
to cross it, but with the water above
the axle Of the wheel and the horse's
legs being washed away from under 1t
it was an impossible task, and the
driver turned back. Big casks and
packing cases were dancing on the sur
face like corks.
"Aa you can imagine did not get
home to supper that evening. 1t was
o'clock before the rain stopped and the
water in the streets had drained into
ahe haEbor. Even then traffic had not
begun to reorganiZe itself.
SThe trolley car tracks had been
washed out, and no cars were run
ming. Cabs, however, were doing
roaring business, and eventually | got
q cabman to drive me home for three
times bis customary charge.
The damage to property in King
ston mounted up to hundreds of thou
sands Of dollars, but the real destruc.
tion was wrought IN the country dis
tricts. Floods wiped out many negro
village and sent the tHmsy houses
floating down the rivers. The railroads
were tied up for nearly a week. Every
banana tree In the path of the hurri.
cane was uprooted. oh, yes, West
indian hurricane can do lot of dam
age when it gets busy.
Loss Of life. did you say! OF course
there was. Nearly 200 people were
killed throughout the island on that Oc-
easion. but we grow accustomed to
that In the West Indies. We expect a
hurricane every once in awhile, and
we know that It will take its toll of
human life when 1t comes. If you had
been telling the story you would prob
ably have mentioned that first Of all
but sudden death lie so common below
she tropic of Cancer that we get cal
lous, suppose. York Sun.