Episcopal Press and News
Jamaica Picks up the Pieces
Episcopal News Service. October 27, 1988 [88230]
NEW YORK (DPS, Oct. 27) -- In Jamaica, the word on everybody's lips is Gilbert. The first hurricane to hit here since 1951, Gilbert wreaked havoc upon this small island in the West Indies, causing damage that will still be felt in the new year.
Churches, schools, hospitals, hotels, homes, businesses, and farms all suffered the wrath of winds moving at velocities of up to 180 miles per hour. An estimated 80 percent of the island's housing was damaged; 20 percent of it destroyed. Approximately 500,000 people were left at least temporarily homeless. Forty-five people were killed.
Most of the local farms, which provide the sole means of living for a large number of Jamaicans, were destroyed. Entire crops were wiped out, causing more than $400 million in damage and forcing the country to import fruit for the first time in 45 years. The poultry industry, worth more than $60 million, was devastated.
Clean drinking water was nonexistent for weeks after the storm. Floods swept dirt and drowned livestock into the water supplies, while purification systems were inoperable or ineffective.
Electricity and communications were wiped out. For days, amateur ham radio operators were the country's only link with the outside world. Power lines were not merely knocked down; utility poles themselves were toppled or snapped in half.
Kingston, the nation's capital and major industrial center, was without power a week after Gilbert struck. Authorities hesitated to turn the electricity back on for fear of people being electrocuted by power lines strewn across the city's streets.
Jamaica's principal tourist area, Montego Bay, was without power for ten days before electricity was partially restored. Smaller communities were still in the dark weeks after Gilbert had passed.
No one has been able to assess the actual value of the damage, but it has been estimated to be at least $8 billion. Before Gilbert, Jamaica already had a debt of more than $4 billion, or about $19,000 per person in a country where the annual per capita income is about $1,450.
Some of the burden is being eased by international relief, which is pouring into Jamaica from a number of countries -- primarily Canada, the United States, and Great Britain -- as well as the International Red Cross, the United Way, the Salvation Army, and various churches. The churches in Jamaica, however, have not been as active helping others as they might have liked, largely because of the need to deal with their own troubles. Across the country, more than a dozen churches have to be completely rebuilt, and nearly 200 more have to be repaired. (According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Jamaica has more churches per square mile than any other country in the world).
The Anglican Church was hit particularly hard, with an estimated 109 churches damaged -- as well as 25 Anglican schools, 34 rectories, and 21 church halls hard-hit. "The churches and schools suffered extensive damage," Bishop Neville de Souza of Jamaica said, "...but our primary concern is for the indigenous society here."
An estimated 150,000 people sought shelter in more than 450 distress centers across the country. Many churches helped displaced persons by offering buildings for temporary shelter during and after the storm. In Kingston, 120 centers were established, the largest being the city's sports arena, which still housed people two weeks after Gilbert.
"The people have an urgent need for many things: food, clothes. But the big item is now material for rebuilding homes," Bishop de Souza said. However, these materials are hard to come by. The most common form of roofing here is zinc, but it has to be imported, as does most of the suitable lumber.
Alternative sources of roofing also disappear quickly. Plastic sheeting shipped in from the United States vanished in days; a prominent sign at Jamaican Red Cross headquarters explains that it has no materials for roofing. The Jamaican government has arranged to bring in some $9.5 million in lumber supplies and 7,000 tons of zinc roofing sheets, which will meet about 40 per cent of total need. The government has not specified how these materials will be distributed.
The problem is that the need is widespread, from the poor shantytown residents to the home owners in Beverly Hills, a plush neighborhood outside Kingston.
Public buildings need materials for repairs as well, especially hospitals and schools. Kingston Public Hospital was forced to close six of its wards following Gilbert, while Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay faces repairs to at least four floors that were severely damaged. Fifty children's homes were also reported to be in need of repair.
The Anglican Church has been gathering in resources in order to repair its Nuttal Hospital. A good portion of the hospital's roof was lost, leaving the maternity ward running at only half capacity.
With the scarcity of resources, the Church is exercising caution in its use of funds. It does not want to rush into projects only to wind up doubling aid in one area at the expense of somewhere else, Bishop de Souza explained.
Finding out what assistance is being provided, and where, is extremely difficult. Communication on the island is chaotic, and assistance organizations, including the government's Office of Disaster Preparedness, have little time to monitor activities other than their own. "Getting information is part of the problem," Bishop de Souza said.
The one clear thing is that Jamaica does not have the resources or facilities to implement an assistance program the size of the one it needs.
Weeks after the crisis, the airport in Kingston remains jammed with supplies, many of them stored in warehouses because there is no one to move them and nowhere else to store them. Military personnel are employed everywhere, not only to move supplies, but also to provide protection against looters. While relief supplies remain stored in Kingston, hundreds of people in poorer, outlying areas wait for aid to arrive.
The amount of aid needed is great. For example, Morant Bay, a town on the east coast of the island, was one of the first places Gilbert struck. A Red Cross worker, having just returned from there, explained that it is a small town, but its needs are large.
"If we [the Red Cross] took everything we have and put it into Morant Bay alone, it still wouldn't be nearly enough," the worker said.