Thirty Years Ago on the Beach - #8 The Eye of Gilbert

Gasping in awe, the most unbelievable sight was above us. The eye of the hurricane was directly overhead.

As if looking up from the bottom of an incredibly large bucket, a perfect circle of daylight shown above. Little wispy clouds at varying altitudes gave depth to the awesome sight. The walls of this massive bucket were a dark, grey churning mass of air currents, the winds of the eye wall.

Gazing at the closest section, the part that had just passed looked eerily solid, moving so fast, creating an illusion of a solid wall. It was actually whipping around in enormous circular pattern. Amazing.

Above us, the last moments of daylight were taking place. There was a sunset out there, but we couldn't see it. The pastels were highlighting the uppermost tips of the bucket cloud.

It was difficult to move around due to the water, trees and branches on the ground. The sea which had been some 50 yards from the villa was now coming up around us, we were walking in the Caribbean.

Coconuts, wood, sections of boats and other broken items were washing in and out with each roaring wave. Sand was being deposited, covering our feet with each pass.

While we had the daylight, the groundsman was taking inventory of the damages. Noting the sea against the front villa, he instructed us to begin moving the supplies and gear to the back villa. It was at this point we noticed the wind in the eye.

Stories are told about the eye of the hurricane being calm, for Gilbert it was only calmer. Having just experienced the shrieking full force winds of the eye wall, the current winds seemed like nothing. While moving our supplies the wind was noticeable. Anything not held down would fly off and get caught up in a place out of reach due to the damage surrounding us.

The cloud bucket kept inching its way across the sky as the light overhead dimmed while the sun dipped deeper down the unseen horizon.

As day once again turned to night, a blinking light became visible in the sky. There was a plane flying inside of this sky bucket. What kind of fool would be flying in this?

Looking around in the semi darkness of night gave a strange sense of calm. This ceased instantly as we all began to run to the second villa. The brain reacted instinctively. As quickly as it had stopped, an enormous roaring shrieking sound came upon us. As we entered the villa we came to realize the eye wall was back.

Parts 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1
https://negril.com/forum/showthread....ach-7-Building

This is such a riveting account of Gilbert's wrath. Very interesting indeed!

I’m really enjoying this. Keep it coming!

Good read, must of been scary. Was there a couple months later and the destruction was evident. I remember the banana groves were flattened. And sand in weird spots.

Everytime I go to Negril I get sand in weird spots.