The fifth storm in 14 years to bear the name Gustav paid our tiny Island a visit last week. Almost a year after Hurricane Dean, Gustav while only a tropical storm at the time it hit, proved just as destructive.

Now it seemed to me that this storm just had its sights set on Jamaica. I've often heard that U-turns can be dangerous but check out the above photo from Weather Underground and see the turn Gustav did to make a beeline straight for us. Added to that the slow pace of the storm that just magnified the potential for damage. At one point Gustav was travelling at 4mph. You really could have been on a morning jog going faster than this storm.

News bulletins heard on the radio while the storm passed over us mentioned at various points, "the storm is now passing over Kingston...", "it's in the area over the Hellshire Hills..., "Gustav is now offshore Negril Parasailing...". Ok, well not the last one, but it really did seem to take its time.

The worst hit parishes were those on the eastern side of the Island - Portland, St. Thomas, St. Mary, Kingston and St.Andrew. Several hundred roads (mostly parochial) were seriously damaged and a number of towns were marooned. The bridge on the main thoroughfare connecting Kingston & St. Andrew with St. Thomas further east and which spans the Hope River was washed away leaving about 200,000 persons without their main route to conduct their business.

Thankfully, action from the government has been relatively swift and foreign assistance has already began pouring in. It seems that we are getting much better at recovery here. Now maybe we can start putting some more effort in preparation since the weather trend appears not to be in our favour.

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