Thirty Years Ago on the Beach - #18 Afterword

This account was written on the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Gilbert. There was no preplanning and no consent was given by the others involved. Thus I included no individual names.

It was the first time in decades that I had seriously thought about what had transpired during those days. Making sure I mentioned the main points, hundreds of things long forgotten were remembered but not recorded in this version. That is for the rewrite.

Some odd things did take place. My Mom was worried about us and called our state representative. He told her that we were all okay. Only thing was, we were completely cut off from anyone after the hurricane and he could not have known how we were at all. He is dead now so no reason to give his name.

The experience was life changing. Gilbert was the main reason that I chose to move to Jamaica.

Thanks for reading.

Parts 17 to 1
https://negril.com/forum/showthread....Booze-and-News

Nice story and well written Rob. I thought my Florida hurricane experiences were noteworthy but nothing like Gilbert. Respect.

Very well written. I think you may have missed your calling Rob.

Thanks for posting your memoir.

Let us hope that Jamaica does not see the likes of anything close to Gilbert again for many years to come (better yet, never again!)

Thanks for sharing your experience, Rob. I agree with Yoooper, very well written.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by halfwaytree

Thanks for posting your memoir.

Let us hope that Jamaica does not see the likes of anything close to Gilbert again for many years to come (better yet, never again!)

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Can you say Ivan?

Cap

Quote:

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Originally Posted by captaind

Can you say Ivan?

Cap

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Ivan was a big rain producer, lots of water damage. But we had a/c and the satellite dish working at Sunshine Plaza in a couple days.

Been here for every hurricane since Gilbert and none have been remotely close to Gilbert.

Thnx for sharing

That was very interesting Rob. Thanks for sharing.

Gilbert destroyed the original round house on Zion Hill and darn near killed Linston and the family.

I was at sea and all I could do was watch the weather fax and pray. I had no news for two weeks

Cap

Thanks for this Rob! Your intriging first hand account brought me back to the board. :) Can only try to imagine what it must have felt like to go back through these memories let alone having experienced this monster storm 30 years ago!

I'm counting on the rewrite being at least 400 pages and a thriller!!!

Great reading ROB!


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Thanks Rob I really enjoyed reading that!

Thank you Rob!! I do understand what drew you there and if that had happened to you anywhere else in the world you would have probably never returned.

Thanks Rob, I have enjoyed the past evenings reading your story. I also hope that you write a longer version.

Nice read, Rob. Thank you.

Very nice! Thanks

Thank you for sharing your memories with us.

You had me hooked with your 1st post!! I was constantly checking for more of your story. You have a gift for writing....Thanks for sharing with all of us!!

very well written & insightful to what it was like. After being there from the third week of June on, I left on September 6th because my daughters had to start school. I would like to know your impressions of what Ivan did to the west end !

The West End can get mashed up when a storm system gets near Jamaica. The high seas can cause all kinds of damage. I was up at Catcha after Ivan helping to clean up - we had to wait until the sea calmed down to get near the place.

The next year both Rita and Wilma caused major damage to the West End. That was the year when they ran out of names for the hurricanes!

A very telling difference between Gilbert and Ivan was that I could get to Catcha as well as Sunshine Plaza the day after Ivan. After Gilbert, it was days before you could even think about trying to make it to the West End. There is no real comparison... Ivan was nasty, but Gilbert destroyed everything.

Forget to mention that Ivan was a much longer storm. Gilbert was moving 15mph and was over in a day, Ivan was moving like 2mph. Lots of rain for days but much slower winds...