How did these hurricanes develop? The theory of the development of
storms came from two schools of thought at that time. One school suggested
that storms originated where the air was hottest over the land or where
the air was coolest over the ocean and contained a high level of moisture.
The other school of thought suggested that storms were the result of vast
quantities of electricity in the atmosphere.
The dramatic phenomena experienced in the 1831 hurricane in Barbados
were cited in support of the second view. It appears that: a number of
meteors were seen falling from the heavens - that the lightning played
frightfully between the clouds and the earth, with novel and surprising
action - that the blaze of lightning that issued downwards toward the earth
was returned from the earth upwards - that during the remarkable phenomena,
the earth appeared to vibrate in a manner, and in a time answering with
the action of the lightning.
In the light of such awesome displays of nature's forces, the nineteenth
century sailors and landlubbers alike tried to gauge the signals for accurately
predicting an active hurricane season. The frightening passage of the storms
led to that question which we still ask ourselves today: "Shall we be visited
by a hurricane this year?" The most reliable signs of likely violent weather
were extraordinarily wet seasons or extraordinarily dry seasons preceding
the hurricane period.
The Caribbean people of the nineteenth century had only a few hours
advance notice by a few keen weather observers. Accurate observations for
approaching storms were an unusually heavy seas, a falling barometer, and
an "unsteady" wind. Once it was established that a storm was near, open
air observation of wind direction facilitated location of the centre of
the storm.
Today, meteorologists may look to the pattern of weather emerging from
the Sahara Desert in Africa and atmospheric conditions in the Atlantic
Ocean. By a series of computer tests and simulations using all the past
available data, they are likely to predict cycles of high or low hurricane
activity for the hurricane seasons to come. In addition, they can inform
us of a hurricane days in advance of it striking an island or the eastern
coast of North America.
Without the sophisticated weather and telecommunication systems used
today, our foreparents appeared to have had little knowledge of the indications
of the hurricane's approach and consequently they made little preparation
for its visit. To avoid unnecessary damage, residents needed to prepare
their homes not only at the first signs of bad weather, but at the start
of the hurricane season. They were advised to keep emergency materials
on hand with two lights available for use during the storm. The advice
in the 1850s, in addition, urged residents in the progress of the storm
to go to the strongest and most sheltered room of the house, or to the
cellar if it was not prone to flooding during the storm.
Were the hurricanes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries any different
from those we experience today? Here are some examples in answer to that
question. The October 1780 hurricane that passed over Savanna-La-Mar, Jamaica
was a deadly storm. While many people were viewing an approaching column
or "whirl-pillar" that rose up from the sea: it advanced suddenly upon
them, drowned them in their upper rooms, into which they had retreated
as the water rose and washed away them and their houses together.
An 1804 hurricane in the Windward and Leeward Islands seemed to have
to performed similarly to our 1995 Hurricane Luis: It commenced on the
4th of September and blew until the close of the 6th without any pause.
Antigua, St. Christopher's, Dominica, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and St. Bartholomew's
all suffered in a greater or lesser degree. 274 vessels are said to have
perished.
The 1831 hurricane in Barbados was reported as well to be one of the
more spectacularly destructive hurricanes: The hurricane again burst from
the Western points with violence prodigious beyond description hurling
before it thousands of missiles, the fragments of every unsheltered structure
of human art. The strongest houses were caused to vibrate to their foundations
and the surface of the very earth trembled as the destroyer raged over
it.
The horrible roar and yelling, the noise of the ocean ... the clattering
of tiles, the falling of roofs and walls, and the combination of a thousand
other sounds, formed a hideous and appalling din.
What remains clear is that today, as in the early 1800s, hurricanes
destructively vent their rage and fury over the otherwise idyllic island
chain. Today, we may predict with more accuracy the strength of an approaching
storm, but like those folk in the nineteenth century we are left to secure
our homes as well as we can from the ravages of racing winds and driving
rains - winds and rains that find every crease and crevice to play their
game of "stop me if you can". Flooding, flying debris, and frightened men,
women and children are all part of the storm patterns. We have experienced
the effects of Luis. Yet we will ask ourselves each hurricane season: "Shall
we be visited by a hurricane this year?"
