Hurricanes and Caribbean Islands

[Mike Peregrine]

Has anyone actually been on an island during or after a hurricane?

After watching Ike completely enclose a couple of the islands in the Turks and Caicos, and then run most of the length of Cuba, I was wondering how people down there deal with that kind of destruction year after year. You don't really hear a lot about them in the media here, but as Ike moved over the islands in the east Caribbean, it's pretty obvious that there would be nowhere to run to get away from one of these things. I've visited down there a few times, and though it's a paradise, I can't imagine most building standards or infrastructure possibly holding up very well.

Just wondered if anyone had any firsthand experience - - -

 

[B Ozanne]

No firsthand experience, but I do have some insights.

It may seem like the islands get hit every year, but in reality it can be decades between significant strikes on any one particular island. Cuba and Hispaniola aside, after all, they are very large. My parents used to go to Turks and Caicos and the islanders there boasted how they never get hit by storms. Obviously they do. But that attitude came from historical experience.

Puerto Rico is a good example. I think they get brushed by storms every few years, but it seems like it has been since Hugo (1989) since they had major damage. The Windward Islands extend for hundreds of miles. I can think of several islands that haven't had strikes in many years.

It also seems to me that some of the islands have higher building standards. Obviously many don't. But they just seem to pick up the pieces faster and move on. Also, depending on the island storm surge is not nearly as big an issue as it is on the continent.

 

[Jose Garcia]

Puerto Rico's last big hit was hurricane Georges in 1998. It was a deepening 115mph storm that crossed the entire length of the island from east to west. Winds gusted to over 150mph in the eastern eyewall which I happened to experience. So far is the strongest storm I've seen in my life and it was the worst hurricane in Puerto Rico since San Ciprian (1932), Hugo was a cat-4 over the eastern part of the island and Marilyn blasted the island of Culebra (municipality of Puerto Rico) in 1995 but Georges did bad damage to the entire nation. After the hurricane, life is miserable but most buildings here are concrete anyway. After Georges we've had several other storms causing TS or near hurricane conditions like Jose, Lenny, Debby and Jeanne which crossed the island as a borderline TS/hurricane. So yep, when storms hit here, they do it big time...

Jose