East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-01-20
A BLOW N JAMAICA
Things That Happen When a Big
Storm Breaks Loose There.
A WEST INDIAN HURRICANE.
It Will Leap Out Of Clear Sky and
Level Almost Everything In Its
Path - Then Comes a Torrential
Down9our That Ends In a Flood.

Level Almost Everything In Its
Path = Then Comes Torrential
Downpour That Ends In a Flood.
Have you ever been through West
Indian hurricane? said 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 Il 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 much lower veloci-
ty. This is likely to continue for
many hours, sometimes for many days,
and Is always accompanied by a 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 door Of a rickety
wooden building AS suddenly as
clap of thunder the room went dark.
81 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
the southwest obscuring the sun, but
the mountains back of the city were
still golden with light
"In less than a quarter Of an hour
the wind reached US. The first struc-
ture that went was n 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 II 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 the church went,
the roofs of IA good many residences
were torn OF. and some fine palm trees
in 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 Il few stories high. and the
roofs present broad and compara-
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 oilce build
ing withstood IL. But the tail of the
thing followed. with a heavier rain
: than | have ever seen before or since
To say that it 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
, ter to plump straight down on us.
IN three hours the macadam ON The
streets had been washed into the har
Dor The street outside my window
was a rushing river as much as foul
feet deep in places. ! saw cart try
TO cross il. but with the water above
the axle of the wheel and the horses
legs being washed away from under i
: it was an impossible task. and the
driver turned back. Big casks anc
packing cases were dancing OH the sur
, face like corks.
"As you can imagine. ! did not ge
, home TO supper chat evening. 1t was
| o'clock before the rain stopped and thu
water in the streets had drained int
the harbor. Even then traffic had no
begun to reorganize itself.
"The trolley car tracks had beer
washed out. and no cars were run
l ming Cabs. however. We're doing ;
roaring business. and eventually | go
: a cabman To drive me home for three
times his customary charge
The damage to property in King
D ston mounted up TO hundreds of thou
! sands of dollars, but the real destruc
= ton was wrought in the country dis
+ tricts. Floods wiped out many Il negr'
+ village and sent the tlimsy houses
floating down the rivers. The railroad
S were tied up for nearly week. Ever.
j banana tree in the path of the hurri
i cane was uprooted. oh, yes, a Yves
! Indian hurricane can do lot of dam
q age when it gets busy.
( Loss of life, did you say? OF cours'
, there was. Nearly 200 people wer'
+ killed throughout the island on that oc
3, casion. but we grow accustomed L
/ that in the West Indies We expect {
T. hurricane every once in awhile, anC
4 we know that i will take its toll q
0 human life when it comes, If you hat
been telling the story you would prob
ably have mentioned that first Of all
5 but sudden death is so common below
? the tropic of Cancer that we get cal
4 lous, suppose. New York sun