TS Grace’s timing invokes memories of ’51 storm

Tropical Storm Grace lashed the island with winds and rain, but outside of some flooding, there wasn’t extensive damage or the kind of displacement that can make for a harrowing experience. But 70 years ago almost to the day, recovery for Jamaica seemed a long way away after the devastation meted out by Hurricane Charlie. Here, The Gleaner, without having a full evaluation of all the damage done, still paints a picture of mass destruction and suffering and death.

The Published Monday, August 20, 1951

110 DEAD AS HURRICANE RIPS SOUTH COAST

Kingston smashed by savage storm

Morant Bay, Port Royal Wrecked; Horrow night as 125 mph winds rage

Heavy havoc to bananas, coconut losses severe

DEAD 110 and an estimated £16,000,000 in damage to buildings, cultivations and services is the toll of the most staggering and devastating hurricane that Jamaica has suffered in its long weather-marked history. From out of the south-east Caribbean, the season’s third chartered hurricane, hurried, then slowed, gathered its venom, and, on Friday night, with 125-mile-per hour winds, crashed across St Thomas, Kingston, St Andrew and Port Royal and several sections of other southern parishes. 

Full extent of the rural damage is not yet known, but first reports indicate that there was extensive damage in the banana industry, in coconuts, and in other crops.

Morant Bay has been destroyed.  Port Royal has been laid flat.  Damage in Spanish Town, in May Pen, and in other parish towns of the island has been extensive.  And Kingston has received the heaviest blow since the earthquake and fire of 1907 brought it tumbling down in ruins.

54 Known Dead In Corporate Area

The city itself, including the harbour where ships tossed upon mountainous waves and smashed themselves against each other and against the beaches and piers and the outer reaches of the Corporate Area accounted for 54 persons known to have been killed in the wind and the rain, and for fully £13,000,000 of the estimated £16,000,000 damage.

The Caribbean storm, moving forward at a pace of 20 miles, hurled its fury around at speeds of 125 miles per hour, which moved north, south, east and west, dashed itself against St Thomas and laid waste the parish to such an extent that reports which reached Kingston late last night told of dreadful damage, including an 80 per cent destruction of Morant Bay.

So far, 34 persons are known to have been killed in that parish, but reports of 30 dead in the Yallahs Valley area and in other parts of St Thomas are expected to bring the total casualties to somewhere near 150 persons, if present reports are substantiated.

A Government-directed relief mission sailed from Kingston last night for Morant Bay.

The hurricane was first heard of Wednesday when it was reported to be boiling up in the vicinity of the Leeward Islands, Travelling slowly west by north past Mona passage, it took a little over 48 hours to reach the island.  But it gathered size, speed and intensity as it moved along, and by the time it hurled its disaster-laden winds over the south-east coast of the island it was moving forward at the rate of 20 miles per hour with centre winds rushing around the compass points at speeds up to 125 miles per hour.

First positive information of its near arrival was the gentle west wind which blew up at about 9:15 Friday evening. Only a few minutes it blew, then it drifted away.  Fifteen minutes later, the hurricane came.  It hit with full fury from the very first.  It pounded with sudden force unleashing all its power with one huge roar which levelled Port Royal and destroyed the Palisadoes Airport installations as it pushed its way across the leaping mountainous sea to crash through Kingston, ripping roads, uprooting giant trees, snapping steel and telegraph posts like so much matchwood.

Ten minutes of such ferocity was sufficient to paralyse the city, cut electrical and communication services, and block transportation. And while the headwinds rushed across and out of the near devastated city, touching points here and there in St Andrew to go pounding through Sp. Town and on across the countryside, the circular, winds chimed in to throw ships off their moorings and up against the Palisadoes road and the airport runway to complete the damage that had begun.

The hurricane reached its greatest intensity in the first forty-five minutes, then kept a sustained and always dangerous strength for the next three hours. After 1:30 on Saturday morning, the winds lessened appreciably but the driving rain increased the terrors of the darkened storm-lashed night and women and children huddled screaming in rain-washed wall corners, some thinking of those whom they knew to be dead, while others prayed for the dawn.

Crop Damage 

With communications between Kingston and the rest of the island cut, full details of the damage done by the hurricane could not be known up to last night,  but first reports indicate widespread damage in banana, coconut and other cultivations in St Thomas, Portland, St Mary, St Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester as well as in sections of St Andrew; and heavy property loss in St Catherine and other areas of the island which were caught in the full fury of the storm as it pushed its way across the countryside.

By yesterday afternoon, 55 persons were known to be dead in the rural areas; 16 in St. Catherine and 2 in Clarendon, 3 in St. Mary, 32 in St. Thomas.

The hurricane came out of the Caribbean in the dark of night Friday and took a north-westerly course across the island after it had struck its first disaster-laden blows along the south-east coast of the island from Bowden to Passage Fort. 

When it had passed Morant Bay, Yallahs and Port Royal, these towns had been destroyed and devastation was in every section of Kingston. Hundreds of buildings were damaged, some completely destroyed, and thousands of people were left homeless as emergency services fought to keep pace with the growing incidence of homelessness, nakedness and hunger.

Tale of Damage

Saturday morning, after a night in which the wind and the rain had slashed and hammered at the city between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. Kingston awakened, still reeling from the heavy blow to find damage heaped upon damage from east to west and from north to south, while in the Harbour, 2 yachts and 8 vessels had been sunk, taking 19 lives and others had slipped their moorings to crash against beaches and piers.

The Palisadoes Airport was levelled and such eastern Kington and lower St Andrew districts as Spring field, Bournemouth Gardens, Mountain View, Eden Gardens, Brown's Town, Passmore Town, Franklin Town, Rollington Town and Vineyard Town, were so badly mauled that it appeared as if a giant hand had moved among them during the night, ripping the roofs from off the houses and crumbling the weaker ones.

But all other sections of the city from east to west, below and above East Queen Street, stretching north to a line passing through Cross Roads from Cockburn Pen to Mountain View Avenue and Old Hope Road, there was a concentrated damage which made it impossible for comparisons to be drawn between any sections of the city.

Only in Central lower St Andrew in an area running just above Half-way Tree, was damage kept to a minimum. In all other sections of the Corporate Area, few buildings escaped damage and the loss in furniture and home furnishings cannot be estimated.

Most of those dead were killed by collapsing buildings but seven were drowned on land and 16 in the harbour.

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