“Come back inside”  “Keep de door shut”  “Don’t open de window” “Don’t open dat door agen”.  Those were a few of the desperate commands from my mother in a bid to avert a possible disaster, which would have resulted in a short walk to the Hurricane Shelter.

During my early years, I often heard about “storms” and “hurry-canes” but I had never seen one.  I thought “storms” were only in the Bible and “hurry-canes” were lorries loaded with sugarcane being driven quickly down Bridge Cot Road or Market Hill, but as I got older, I learned that storms were real and destructive, and that “hurry-canes” were in fact “hurricanes”, which were also real and destructive.  I also learned that hurricanes had names and were either “small” or “big”.

Every year, people talked about the forthcoming hurricane, but nothing ever came of it.  However, whilst I wasn’t disappointed, I had nothing to look forward to, as far as hurricanes were concerned.

The closest I got to thinking “it’s a hurricane!” was when it rained for hours with water running down both sides of the street.  As well as the rain, some days the wind would be very strong (which was good for drying clothes), enough to blow off tree branches and panels from corrugated roofs or palings, but without causing any extensive or expensive structural damage.

There were occasions during the hurricane season when everything appeared “different”, as if the island was back to front.  On that occasion, the wind blew from the west, or there was no wind or rain, the trees stood upright, the birds stopped chirping, the chickens remained in the backyard and the sheep and cows laid down without chewing their cuds, but that situation didn’t last long – only a few hours or so.  However, on such conditions my excitement would be squashed by the immortal words “dis is only wedder”.

Normally the wind blew from east to west, noted by the shape of the treetops – slanted towards the west.  The sugar cane leant towards the west - unless someone was using them for other purposes, and the bus went faster when heading towards Bridgetown from Edge Cliff.  From Edge Cliff it is mostly downhill to Bridgetown. 

Picture the journey.  Upon leaving Edge Cliff and  Hothersal, the bus went down to Venture, then down to Villa Nova, down to Market Hill, down to Hothersal Turning, down to Black Rock and then down into Bridgetown.  Now you know why it went faster when travelling to Bridgetown. 

Oh, by the way, the bus stopped to pick up passengers before it was full, it went ‘round bends, corners, stopped at cross roads and T-junctions.  There were not many traffic lights in the countryside and definitely no roundabouts.

Sometimes a change in the weather caused strange occurrences, for example, there would be lots of little green worms about an inch long, little frogs, (frogs are not my favourite creatures) swarms of little flies that got everywhere and little white “land crabs”.

There were also large white land crabs but I don’t know of anyone who caught and ate them.  This occurrence happened at different times during the rainy season.  Upon reflection, it was probably a message of some kind.  I didn’t know what the message was, but it could have been “expect a Hurricane”.

The Calm Before The Storm

It is the height of the hurricane season, it is the month of September 1955. Everybody is talking about the expected hurricane and I am excited.  I had never seen a storm or a hurricane, so when I heard that the hurricane was on its way, I couldn’t help being excited.  At that age I was fearless of the unknown, even the duppies.  It appeared as if I was finally going to see my first Hurricane, known as “Janet”.  I was really energised - like Jane was, and looked forward to the experience.

I remembered my mother saying the hurricane was coming and that I had to stay inside the house.  I had no idea hurricanes could or would blow down houses, uproot trees or blow people away, so having to stay inside increased my curiosity.  I had to see what was going on outside.

According to my father, the design of the roof enabled it to withstand strong winds, so it would stand up to Janet Hurricane.  The design of our roof meant that the wind blew around the roof as apposed to under it.  That must have been frustrating for a strong wind trying to dislodge our roof.  After trying, the wind must have exclaimed, “I’ve huffed and puffed and still can’t get this one off”, and the roof must have boasted, “I’ve won”.

It was early morning.  All the schools were closed except for the ones designated as hurricane shelters.  The birds and other creatures all went into hiding.  I imagined the birds and other creatures sent a signal; “Janet is on her way, let’s get out of this place” and did so.  At that time, I didn’t see the need for us as a family to go to a shelter, because I believed Janet would not blow down our house.  Although the schools were closed, it was more exciting looking forward to seeing Janet than having the day off school.  Can you believe that?

The local Infants school, which was a small building, was designated a hurricane shelter.  The shelter was only a short walk from our house, so it would not have taken us long to reach it if we had to, but even before Janet had arrived, people were heading for the shelter, which quickly became full.  Perhaps they knew something I didn’t.

It is now mid-morning and my mother is struggling to keep me inside the house.  My curiosity is getting the better of me. I have to see this Janet Hurricane.  “Come back inside”  “Keep de door shut”  “Don’t open de window”. Don’t do this and don’t do that.  I only wanted to see Janet Hurricane.

Here It Comes

Before the arrival of Janet, it felt as if someone was using a rheostat type switch to turn off the sun and turn down the noise at the same time.  It became deadly silent and calm – no wind – not even a light breeze, no black birds or any other birds, no dogs barking, no traffic, no flies, no creeping or crawling creatures – even the house lizards had disappeared, and no one walking about.  It then started to look a kind of Murky Grey, then changing to a strange light – not bright, but bright enough to allow me to see outside, but quickly changed back to the Murky Grey.

Gradually the wind came, not from the east, but from the north across the Atlantic Ocean.  It was a light breeze at first, becoming stronger sufficient to make the leaves flutter, then a little stronger.  The branches appeared to be dancing as the strength of wind increased.  I sensed something was really going to happen and I was ready for it.  Was I afraid?  No. 

After a few minutes, the wind became much stronger with a loud whistling sound, accompanied by fine stinging rain.  The branches stopped dancing and the trees began leaning, this time to the south.  Unable to contain my curiosity, I opened the door and nearly lost it and the roof, but my mother was there to prevent a disaster. 

I think she was a little annoyed with me - well, more than just a little, because her voice and description of me changed as she approached me with hurricane like determination. But she still loved me.

Destruction Has Begun

As the force of the wind increased, things were becoming dangerously serious.  It felt as if our house was about to change its position as the rain lashed menacingly against the corrugated roof (normally I like the soothing sound of rain on a corrugated roof).  The wind had now increased its speed and ferocity as if in readiness for total destruction.  Although I couldn’t see exactly where Hurricane Janet was coming from, I was able to look through one of the southside windows and saw where it was going, what it was doing and what it was about to do.

About five feet from the front of our house was an avocado tree that remained standing.  At the top of our sugarcane field were two breadfruit trees – one exceptionally large, and the other just under half the size of the large one.  A cart road ran alongside the sugarcane field. 

Further up the cart road towards the main road and to the right of the breadfruit trees, lived a young family in a small house.  All around us were other houses and smaller trees.  From the window I could see corrugated sheets being torn from roofs and twisting as they flew through the air.  I also saw the wind lifting several complete roofs.  Some fell back into position but were lifted again and scattered like litter. 

There were all kinds of debris being tossed around, but I felt safe in our house.  The house where the young family lived had its roof blown off and, after gathering up some belongings, the young woman headed for the shelter, but she nearly didn’t make it.

The shelter wasn’t very far from where she lived, and the safest way to get there was along the cart road, pass our breadfruit trees and turn into a line to the shelter.  Laden with a few essentials she set off for the shelter, but as she passed the large breadfruit tree, the wind uprooted it like someone pulling a Carrot, carried it about twelve feet and dumped it around her.

How did she escape serious injury or even death?  God knows.  As the tree fell, the branches parted creating a space around her, which prevented her from being crushed.  Amazingly, none of the falling breadfruit landed on her.  After shouts of “Lord have Mersey” and displaying obvious relief, she continued on her way to the shelter.  God must have decided he only wanted one life at that time and took the breadfruit tree. 

Did I witness the first miracle of the day or of my lifetime?

The hurricanes’ departure was like its arrival - calmly leaving as it calmly arrived. The speed and force of the wind suddenly diminished in intensity.  It took nothing with it, but left destruction.  It demonstrated its power for less than an hour but it took months to undo its destruction.  Sadly, the destruction included loss of life.  The hurricane didn’t really have a major impact on me.  Perhaps it was because I was safe and survived the experience.

After being allowed outside, I looked around at the destruction before going to the shelter to see what was going on.  There were so many people in one small building, I felt sorry for them and wanted to help but it was difficult, and at my age, I had no idea where to start.  I recognised people still wanted their privacy - what little they had, and as little intrusion as possible.  Most people quickly went back to their homes, but a few stayed in the shelter overnight whilst others remained until their homes were made fit to live in.

The next day it felt as if Janet had turned the island ‘round 180 degrees.  With the wind now blowing from north-west to south-east, I was disoriented for a short time.  The treetops were pointing in a different direction, and trees were lying in a position that was unusual for a fallen tree.

I had no idea where the flies, lizards, ants and birds went during the hurricane, but by late morning the flies were hovering, the lizards were taking up residence, the ants were getting into everything and the birds were landing on anything that was standing.  With my curiosity still alive, I decided to walk around the district to see what other damage Janet had caused, before going down to Malvern on my bicycle.

It normally took me less than ten minutes at a moderate speed to ride from Hothersal to Malvern, and about just over ten minutes the other way, but that day it took me almost half hour to ride to Malvern.  I had to make several stops along the route to get my bearings, and to reassure myself that I was heading in the right direction.  Before leaving Malvern, it was a struggle working out where Edge Cliff and Hothersal was, but with the strong wind behind me, it took just over five minutes to get to Edge Cliff.  The experience was so unusual and to some extent exciting that I did the journey a few times that day.

Although I had seen the destruction and observed the hardship that had befallen many families, the impact of the aftermath hadn’t registered with me as being particularly serious or how lucky I was to be alive, and to have a home. 

Sadly, not every family were able to say the same thing.  I did have something to thank God for.

That was my first and last experience of a Hurricane.

I knew a few Janets, but they were nowhere near as wild or destructive as the Janet of 1955 was.

Edited extract from my Autobiography “The early years 4 - 18”

Ollie Younge 2010

Images courtesy Karl Watson from his book 'Barbados First'