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An indomitable people, a resilient country
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
We have been greatly heartened by the spectacular manner with which our people and country met and survived Hurricane Dean, one of the strongest hurricanes in history.
Ironic as it might sound, Sunday, August 19, 2007 must go down as one of the best days in the modern annals of Jamaica. It will be remembered as a day that marked the courage of the Jamaican people and our ability to face extreme adversity without panicking. With true grit and character, our people have begun to pick up the broken pieces left by Dean from the minute the hurricane left their communities.
As is the way of life, not everyone managed to escape the onslaught of the hurricane, and many even now are feeling the blows showered down on homes and communities by the season's first major tropical storm. We must keep these people - our brothers and sisters - in mind as we build back our own lives.
But as always, we are confident that the Jamaican spirit will prevail, and before you know it, life will return to normal. We are an indomitable people and we belong to a resilient country.
We get the sense that Jamaicans have been learning important coping lessons from the string of hurricanes which have either hit or passed close to us since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Enough people have agreed that although Hurricane Dean was a category four storm and weaker than Hurricane Ivan when it lashed our shores in 2004, that the damage appeared to be much less now.
It does appear that dwelling houses and other buildings are being made stronger and more in keeping with the Building Code which emerged after Gilbert. The utility companies are being more pre-emptive and are shutting down services and vulnerable facilities before a pending disaster, in order to allow for quicker restoration of service afterwards.
We noted that the Jamaica Public Service expects to restore power to most of the country by this weekend, and that up to yesterday, the National Water Commission had restored supplies to 45 per cent of its customers, an impressive 48 hours after the hurricane hit.
The disaster preparedness agencies are quicker off the mark, mobilising volunteers, preparing shelters and positioning resources, including equipment at key locations, for speedy response.
Importantly, the populace is responding more to distress warnings, resulting in less smaller numbers of fatalities. More people are leaving their homes for shelters in a more timely manner, even if there are still too many who refuse to believe that a coming storm will, in fact, hit us.
There are, of course, still more lessons to be learnt, in order to minimise our losses from these monstrosities of nature. For example, it is time we realise that Portland Cottage in Clarendon and Caribbean Terrace, Harbour View in St Andrew are no places to live. Ivan and Dean have wreaked similar devastation on those communities.
We need not wait until a third hurricane hits and people die before relocating those communities and the several other extremely flood-prone settlements which, we are sure, are to be found across the island.
Let us call on our enormous strength as a people and country to prepare for the next storm from now.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
We have been greatly heartened by the spectacular manner with which our people and country met and survived Hurricane Dean, one of the strongest hurricanes in history.
Ironic as it might sound, Sunday, August 19, 2007 must go down as one of the best days in the modern annals of Jamaica. It will be remembered as a day that marked the courage of the Jamaican people and our ability to face extreme adversity without panicking. With true grit and character, our people have begun to pick up the broken pieces left by Dean from the minute the hurricane left their communities.
As is the way of life, not everyone managed to escape the onslaught of the hurricane, and many even now are feeling the blows showered down on homes and communities by the season's first major tropical storm. We must keep these people - our brothers and sisters - in mind as we build back our own lives.
But as always, we are confident that the Jamaican spirit will prevail, and before you know it, life will return to normal. We are an indomitable people and we belong to a resilient country.
We get the sense that Jamaicans have been learning important coping lessons from the string of hurricanes which have either hit or passed close to us since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Enough people have agreed that although Hurricane Dean was a category four storm and weaker than Hurricane Ivan when it lashed our shores in 2004, that the damage appeared to be much less now.
It does appear that dwelling houses and other buildings are being made stronger and more in keeping with the Building Code which emerged after Gilbert. The utility companies are being more pre-emptive and are shutting down services and vulnerable facilities before a pending disaster, in order to allow for quicker restoration of service afterwards.
We noted that the Jamaica Public Service expects to restore power to most of the country by this weekend, and that up to yesterday, the National Water Commission had restored supplies to 45 per cent of its customers, an impressive 48 hours after the hurricane hit.
The disaster preparedness agencies are quicker off the mark, mobilising volunteers, preparing shelters and positioning resources, including equipment at key locations, for speedy response.
Importantly, the populace is responding more to distress warnings, resulting in less smaller numbers of fatalities. More people are leaving their homes for shelters in a more timely manner, even if there are still too many who refuse to believe that a coming storm will, in fact, hit us.
There are, of course, still more lessons to be learnt, in order to minimise our losses from these monstrosities of nature. For example, it is time we realise that Portland Cottage in Clarendon and Caribbean Terrace, Harbour View in St Andrew are no places to live. Ivan and Dean have wreaked similar devastation on those communities.
We need not wait until a third hurricane hits and people die before relocating those communities and the several other extremely flood-prone settlements which, we are sure, are to be found across the island.
Let us call on our enormous strength as a people and country to prepare for the next storm from now.
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