Hurricane Dean and His Aftermath: My first weeks in Jamaica

Well I have to say that my first couple of weeks in Jamaica have definitely been interesting. I arrived right before Hurricane Dean and have seen first hand the immediate aftermath of a hurricane. Unlike a tornado which just comes up on you, when a hurricane is coming you have a bit of time to prepare. Because of this, my host mother, Mrs. Rattray, had already gotten lots of water and coolers full of ice for us. She also took us (my roommate Rocsy and me) to the grocery store within the first twenty minutes of our arrival on Saturday so we could “stock up.” The day of the hurricane (which was Sunday, August 19) was a real eye-opener for me.

It was pretty windy when I woke up on the day of the hurricane. I asked Rocsy, who is from Puerto Rico and has experienced hurricanes, if this was the hurricane. She laughed and said that it was just the beginning. As the day wore on the wind blew harder, the rain came down heavier, and the true “hunkering” down began. Rocsy and I live in a little apartment off the back of the house so when Mrs. Rattray brought us food around 2 pm she said, “I’ll see ya tomorrow.” We lost power and water around 4 pm and I would say Dean truly greeted us around 6 pm or so. The wind was so loud that we were basically yelling at each other in order to be heard. The curtains were blowing in the wind despite the fact that all of our windows were shut. The rainwater was coming in under our front door so we had a little pond as well. I fell asleep to the sound of Dean around 9 pm or so. I woke up a few times trying to gage where he was and I would say around 9 am the next day things we much calmer—storm wise at least.

Monday started the long stretch known as the “aftermath” which we are still dealing with. Our electricity was restored on Thursday and our water on Friday. I am told that I should consider that a miracle since the last time a hurricane hit Mrs. Rattray was without either for two months. There are still many areas on the island without water and about 30% still don’t have electricity. We still don’t have our phone line back and thus no internet at home. All of the internet providers were down for about a week, but there is a delightful little coffee shop close to my house which has the internet I am now using.

School which should have started this week will officially start next week. I am getting excited to get going and also am fairly nervous. It has been a while sense I have been in school! I have been out to my agency once and will also start there next week. They have a website, so if you want to check it out here ya go:

http://www.jamaicansforjustice.org

I want to thank everyone who sent me emails regarding the hurricane. I promise I will get to all of them as soon as I have more reliable internet. I will also try to get into my habit of updating this site weekly.

Ok, my internet time is up, so I will email you all soon.