Matthew the Monster (Sigh)
So for about two days before Hurricane Matthew was supposed to hit Jamaica with a ferocity that the island had not experienced since Gilbert devastated us in 1988, I was quite prepared with my Samsung Galaxy Core to capture the monster on video.
I even chose a strategic spot – the veranda, envisaging the winds howling, perhaps catching a hapless chicken or two flying through the air or the lightening piercing the sky above.
On Saturday, my mother left to visit an ailing brother in Richmond, reminding me several times that I must buy three large loaves of brown bread from the bread van which stops at the gate every Saturday without fail.
Well, when the van blew its horn, I was standing on a ladder assisting Mr Miles to batten the kitchen windows (well, I was holding the nails for him.)
So we missed the opportunity to stack up on bread and rode through the experience with me making fried dumplings one day, roti the next, and samosa the following day.
My mother was less than impressed with my efforts to make amends and I am sure we were the only household in the entire country without bread!
She gave me a look of resignation when I hurried to the shops and found NO BREAD! She laughed when I pulled out a pack of Excelsior water crackers from the scandal bag.
There were about 25 bulletins on Matthew’s progress from the Met Office between Saturday and Sunday. They kept repeating the same thing: Matthew is a category four hurricane and we should not take it lightly. Words such as the “system” were used, and pleas for Port Royal residents to evacuate to designated shelters fell on deaf ears.
Everybody waited with bated breath, Matthew was 250 kilometres away from Kingston, travelling at five miles an hour and would make “landfall” by Sunday night into Monday morning.
I patrolled the house at intervals as if I had forgotten to do something crucial, I sat in the living room then jumped up to take a photo of the palm tree swaying in the wind (pictured).
And that was Matthew the Monster – nothing else. Rains and moderate winds throughout the “system”. So I imagine on Tuesday morning, the Chinese retailers were counting a whole heap of money as result of Jamaicans sweeping all the goods from the shelves. Perhaps the Port Royal residents used ancient techniques to know that Matthew was not coming after all?
But on a serious note, bless up Haiti and Cuba where people have died….
By Neo Makeba
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