A roofless St. Gabriel's Anglican Church in May Pen, Clarendon following the passage of Hurricane Charlie. - FILE
I REMEMBER it very well. I was in Montego Bay, St. James at the time with a young baby.
Those days we didn't have all the electronic warnings that we do today so we weren't very prepared.
Hurricane Charlie was a very dangerous storm. In the yard that we lived, there was a very large mango tree to one side of the house. My husband was a fuss pot. He said we had to move with the baby to the other side.
I looked and saw the tree was waving back and forth. We rushed to the other side and as we got there the tree crashed into the side we had just left. It was very dangerous.
Many persons were in shelters. Afterwards, we went and stayed with my mother.
The force of the winds of Charlie were more than those in Hurricane Gilbert.
Many houses and crops were destroyed; it wiped out the entire banana industry because the eastern end of the island was hit harder than the west.
It brought down very large trees.
I believe a hurricane in the rural parts is worse than in the Corporate Area where there are more modern facilities.
After Charlie the shops were opened and we could get things to buy.
-Inez Morrison
It rained and rained in Clarendon
I WAS nine years old when the 1951 storm, 'Charlie', hit Jamaica. At the time I was living in Four Paths, Clarendon, with an older cousin. We heard on the radio that it was coming, but most people did not believe so they did not batten up or anything.
I was in the yard with the other members of my family when it started to rain so we went inside the house. It rained and rained until water started coming in the house.
We had to use pans and buckets to catch the water then spread newspaper all over the floor. But we never moved out. Other persons moved out of their houses as their roofs blew off and houses flooded.
After the storm, when we went outside, the big grapefruit tree in the yard had blown down. There were grapefruits all over the place. Everyone walked around the neighbourhood to see what damage was done. My neighbour, who was a bee-keeper, lost all his bees - they could be seen dead all over the ground.
Most people did not make shelter for their animals as is done now, so the cow and donkey pens were filled with water. Most of the donkeys were cramped and could hardly walk from being in the water.
Our school, Four Paths Primary, was damaged and school was out for about a month. While 'Charlie' destroyed many people's house, we were spared.
- Celia Shakespeare
