Major Events:
Earthquake of 1907-
"Accounts of this catastrophe by Sir Frederick Treves and W. Ralph Hall Caine, both published in 1908, report solid brick walls bulging and collapsing, carriages being lifted and flung through the air, telegraph poles swaying like leaves in the wind, and great structures whether made of iron, wood or stone, crumbling. People were simply picked up and tossed while struggling to maintain their balance. More often than not they ended up resembling flailing pawns in an overturned chess game. Those individuals who managed to escape out onto the streets were quickly enveloped in a thick yellow fog punctuated by the sound of crackling and tumbling walls.
What many thought were heaps of dust were actually people trying to move in a city that had suddenly become foreign. Within twenty minutes fire blazed through the streets of Kingston and lasted for up to four days in many cases finishing off what the earthquake had started. It was also not long before rampant looting broke out and armed guards had to be posted throughout the city. At the public hospital, there was no way to cope with the number of wounded. At 3:30 on that fateful day there were some 200 patients in hospital, by 5:00 p.m. that number had risen to 800. According to W. Ralph Hall Caine, who observed much of the devastation from the Port Kingston, the ship on which he had sailed to the West Indies with numerous English businessmen, planters and parliamentarians, 'the sky was a brilliant constellation of glorious lights, the waters over which we passed, dark and awesome, rendered all the more forbidding by the human flotsam and jetsam (from which I must shut my eyes) floating idly on its surface for a ruined city'(p. 230).
Days later Kingston resembled a ghost town empty, silent, dark and broken. £2,000,000 of damage was assessed and over 800 people lost their lives. The Gleaner and the Jamaica Daily Telegraph published death tolls which were scanned by thousands searching for news of loved ones. Only a few received proper burial. Some were buried in large trenches in the May Pen Cemetery and some were burnt without ceremony.
Fortunately within the next few months there was no rain. In Kingston with many people forced to live in the open air, the fear that rain would lead to the outbreak of epidemics like typhoid, dysentery or even the plague was very real.
Assistance came from America, England and Cuba in the form of ships laden with provisions, extra surgeons and soldiers. Not all assistance was met with equal grace, however, as there was some concern, even in the face of such unmitigated disaster, that American troops could land on English soil. The idea of taking aid from the Americans apparently did not sit well with all. An American Admiral landed armed marines without the express sanction of Governor Swettenham who asked for their immediate removal. The Americans were insulted, the Governor forced to apologise and shortly afterward, he tendered his resignation. A relief committee was appointed to collect supplies of food and clothing and distribute temporary housing. Over a quarter of a million pounds of aid was sent from England."
Hurricane Ike- "was a long-lived and major Cape Verde hurricane that caused extensive damage and many deaths across portions of the Caribbean and along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. It originated from a well-defined tropical wave that moved off the west coast of Africa on August 28 and then became a tropical depression on September 1 about 775 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. The depression quickly strengthened to a tropical storm later that day. Ike became a hurricane on September 3, and Ike reached an estimated peak intensity of 145 mph (Category 4) on September 4 when it was located 550 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands. After weakening briefly, Ike regained Category 4 status just before moving across the Turks and Caicos Islands on September 7. Ike then passed over Great Inagua Island in the southeastern Bahamas at Category 3 strength.
Ike turned westward and made landfall along the northeast coast of Cuba in the province of Holguin early on September 8 with maximum sustained winds estimated near 135 mph (Category 4). Ike made a second landfall in Cuba over the extreme southeastern part of the province of Pinar del Rio on September 9, with winds of 80 mph (Category 1). It moved into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico later that day.
Ike developed a large wind field as it moved northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico over the next 3 days, with tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 275 miles from the center and hurricane-force winds extending up to 115 miles from the center. The hurricane gradually intensified as it moved across the Gulf toward the Texas coast. Ike made landfall over the north end of Galveston Island in the early morning hours of September 13 as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The hurricane weakened as it moved inland across eastern Texas and Arkansas and became extratropical over the middle Mississippi Valley on September 14. It then moved rapidly through the Ohio valley and into Canada, producing wind gusts to hurricane force along the way.
Grand Turk Island reported sustained winds of 116 mph as the center of Ike crossed the island. Storm surges of 15-20 feet above normal tide levels occurred along the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas and in much of the Galveston Bay area, with surges of up to 10 feet above normal occurring as far east as south central Louisiana. Storm total rainfalls from Ike were as much as 19 inches in southeastern Texas and 14 inches in Cuba.
Ike left a long trail of death and destruction. It is estimated that flooding and mud slides killed 74 people in Haiti and 2 in the Dominican Republic, compounding the problems caused by Fay, Gustav, and Hanna. The Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas sustained widespread damage to property. Seven deaths were reported in Cuba. Ike's storm surge devastated the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas, and surge, winds, and flooding from heavy rains caused widespread damage in other portions of southeastern Texas, western Louisiana, and Arkansas. Twenty people were killed in these areas, with 34 others still missing. Property damage from Ike as a hurricane is estimated at $19.3 billion. Additionally, as an extratropical system over the Ohio valley, Ike was directly or indirectly responsible for 28 deaths and more than $1 billion in property damage. "
"Hurricane Ivan-
-Hurricane Ivan’s journey was a long one. Its track was more than 9010 km (5600 mi) long and it existed for over 22 days, 10 days of which were spent as a major hurricane.
-Ivan had the world record of 33 (32 consecutive) six-hour periods with an intensity at or above Category 4 strength, which was broken two years later by pacific Typhoon Ioke with 36 (33 consecutive) six-hour periods at Category 4 strength.
-Hurricane Ivan became the southernmost storm on record, at 10.2°N, to reach major hurricane status.
This hurricane was the third of four hurricanes to impact Florida within a six-week period during the highly active 2004 hurricane season. The other hurricanes that struck were Hurricane Charley Hurricane Charley (13 August, Category 4 hurricane at landfall), Hurricane Frances (5 September, Category 2 hurricane at landfall) and, Hurricane Jeanne (25 September, Category 3 hurricane at landfall).
-A wave generated from Hurricane Ivan’s presence in the Gulf of Mexico damaged an oil rig was located 24 m (80 ft) above the ocean surface. Upon comparing this to the wave action detected as the hurricane passed over 6 tide gauges deployed by the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, MS, it was been determined that the maximum confirmed wave height within the hurricane’s eyewall was 27.7 m (91 ft) – the largest ocean wave height ever recorded in US waters. Scientists believe they may have missed some waves as tall as 40 m (140 ft) during the storm, as the same sensors were set to record for 8.5 minute intervals every 8 hours and switched off before the strongest part of the storm passed overhead.
-It is rare for hurricanes, such as Ivan, that are named east of longitude 35° W, to make landfall on the U.S. mainland.
-Only four others, hurricanes Donna (1960), Hugo (1989), Georges (1998) and Isabel (2003) have done so since record keeping began.
-Some debris piles in Alabama grew to be 21 meters (70 feet) tall and 1.2 kilometers (three-quarters of a mile) wide during the Hurricane Ivan cleanup."
Earthquake of 1907-
"Accounts of this catastrophe by Sir Frederick Treves and W. Ralph Hall Caine, both published in 1908, report solid brick walls bulging and collapsing, carriages being lifted and flung through the air, telegraph poles swaying like leaves in the wind, and great structures whether made of iron, wood or stone, crumbling. People were simply picked up and tossed while struggling to maintain their balance. More often than not they ended up resembling flailing pawns in an overturned chess game. Those individuals who managed to escape out onto the streets were quickly enveloped in a thick yellow fog punctuated by the sound of crackling and tumbling walls.
What many thought were heaps of dust were actually people trying to move in a city that had suddenly become foreign. Within twenty minutes fire blazed through the streets of Kingston and lasted for up to four days in many cases finishing off what the earthquake had started. It was also not long before rampant looting broke out and armed guards had to be posted throughout the city. At the public hospital, there was no way to cope with the number of wounded. At 3:30 on that fateful day there were some 200 patients in hospital, by 5:00 p.m. that number had risen to 800. According to W. Ralph Hall Caine, who observed much of the devastation from the Port Kingston, the ship on which he had sailed to the West Indies with numerous English businessmen, planters and parliamentarians, 'the sky was a brilliant constellation of glorious lights, the waters over which we passed, dark and awesome, rendered all the more forbidding by the human flotsam and jetsam (from which I must shut my eyes) floating idly on its surface for a ruined city'(p. 230).
Days later Kingston resembled a ghost town empty, silent, dark and broken. £2,000,000 of damage was assessed and over 800 people lost their lives. The Gleaner and the Jamaica Daily Telegraph published death tolls which were scanned by thousands searching for news of loved ones. Only a few received proper burial. Some were buried in large trenches in the May Pen Cemetery and some were burnt without ceremony.
Fortunately within the next few months there was no rain. In Kingston with many people forced to live in the open air, the fear that rain would lead to the outbreak of epidemics like typhoid, dysentery or even the plague was very real.
Assistance came from America, England and Cuba in the form of ships laden with provisions, extra surgeons and soldiers. Not all assistance was met with equal grace, however, as there was some concern, even in the face of such unmitigated disaster, that American troops could land on English soil. The idea of taking aid from the Americans apparently did not sit well with all. An American Admiral landed armed marines without the express sanction of Governor Swettenham who asked for their immediate removal. The Americans were insulted, the Governor forced to apologise and shortly afterward, he tendered his resignation. A relief committee was appointed to collect supplies of food and clothing and distribute temporary housing. Over a quarter of a million pounds of aid was sent from England."
Hurricane Ike- "was a long-lived and major Cape Verde hurricane that caused extensive damage and many deaths across portions of the Caribbean and along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. It originated from a well-defined tropical wave that moved off the west coast of Africa on August 28 and then became a tropical depression on September 1 about 775 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. The depression quickly strengthened to a tropical storm later that day. Ike became a hurricane on September 3, and Ike reached an estimated peak intensity of 145 mph (Category 4) on September 4 when it was located 550 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands. After weakening briefly, Ike regained Category 4 status just before moving across the Turks and Caicos Islands on September 7. Ike then passed over Great Inagua Island in the southeastern Bahamas at Category 3 strength.
Ike turned westward and made landfall along the northeast coast of Cuba in the province of Holguin early on September 8 with maximum sustained winds estimated near 135 mph (Category 4). Ike made a second landfall in Cuba over the extreme southeastern part of the province of Pinar del Rio on September 9, with winds of 80 mph (Category 1). It moved into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico later that day.
Ike developed a large wind field as it moved northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico over the next 3 days, with tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 275 miles from the center and hurricane-force winds extending up to 115 miles from the center. The hurricane gradually intensified as it moved across the Gulf toward the Texas coast. Ike made landfall over the north end of Galveston Island in the early morning hours of September 13 as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The hurricane weakened as it moved inland across eastern Texas and Arkansas and became extratropical over the middle Mississippi Valley on September 14. It then moved rapidly through the Ohio valley and into Canada, producing wind gusts to hurricane force along the way.
Grand Turk Island reported sustained winds of 116 mph as the center of Ike crossed the island. Storm surges of 15-20 feet above normal tide levels occurred along the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas and in much of the Galveston Bay area, with surges of up to 10 feet above normal occurring as far east as south central Louisiana. Storm total rainfalls from Ike were as much as 19 inches in southeastern Texas and 14 inches in Cuba.
Ike left a long trail of death and destruction. It is estimated that flooding and mud slides killed 74 people in Haiti and 2 in the Dominican Republic, compounding the problems caused by Fay, Gustav, and Hanna. The Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas sustained widespread damage to property. Seven deaths were reported in Cuba. Ike's storm surge devastated the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas, and surge, winds, and flooding from heavy rains caused widespread damage in other portions of southeastern Texas, western Louisiana, and Arkansas. Twenty people were killed in these areas, with 34 others still missing. Property damage from Ike as a hurricane is estimated at $19.3 billion. Additionally, as an extratropical system over the Ohio valley, Ike was directly or indirectly responsible for 28 deaths and more than $1 billion in property damage. "
"Hurricane Ivan-
-Hurricane Ivan’s journey was a long one. Its track was more than 9010 km (5600 mi) long and it existed for over 22 days, 10 days of which were spent as a major hurricane.
-Ivan had the world record of 33 (32 consecutive) six-hour periods with an intensity at or above Category 4 strength, which was broken two years later by pacific Typhoon Ioke with 36 (33 consecutive) six-hour periods at Category 4 strength.
-Hurricane Ivan became the southernmost storm on record, at 10.2°N, to reach major hurricane status.
This hurricane was the third of four hurricanes to impact Florida within a six-week period during the highly active 2004 hurricane season. The other hurricanes that struck were Hurricane Charley Hurricane Charley (13 August, Category 4 hurricane at landfall), Hurricane Frances (5 September, Category 2 hurricane at landfall) and, Hurricane Jeanne (25 September, Category 3 hurricane at landfall).
-A wave generated from Hurricane Ivan’s presence in the Gulf of Mexico damaged an oil rig was located 24 m (80 ft) above the ocean surface. Upon comparing this to the wave action detected as the hurricane passed over 6 tide gauges deployed by the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, MS, it was been determined that the maximum confirmed wave height within the hurricane’s eyewall was 27.7 m (91 ft) – the largest ocean wave height ever recorded in US waters. Scientists believe they may have missed some waves as tall as 40 m (140 ft) during the storm, as the same sensors were set to record for 8.5 minute intervals every 8 hours and switched off before the strongest part of the storm passed overhead.
-It is rare for hurricanes, such as Ivan, that are named east of longitude 35° W, to make landfall on the U.S. mainland.
-Only four others, hurricanes Donna (1960), Hugo (1989), Georges (1998) and Isabel (2003) have done so since record keeping began.
-Some debris piles in Alabama grew to be 21 meters (70 feet) tall and 1.2 kilometers (three-quarters of a mile) wide during the Hurricane Ivan cleanup."