Ivan kills 20 in Grenada

HURRICANE IVAN ravaged Grenada on Tuesday, killing at least 20 persons, destroying approximately 90 percent of the houses, and devastating the 17th century colonial Richmond Hill Prison sending scores of hardened criminals to roam the battered island. With the island cut off, the extent of the damage began to emerge only on Wednesday. A videotape shot from a British naval helicopter after the hurricane struck showed widespread destruction with buildings flattened, roofs ripped off houses and major flooding. Grenada’s capital, St George’s, was devastated. The island’s emergency operations centre was destroyed and the main hospital damaged, Reuters said. Even Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell suffered severe losses, as his home was completely wiped out. With chaos and panic on the island, Dr Mitchell sought shelter aboard the British naval vessel, the HMS Richmond, which was on routine exercises in the Caribbean.

Newsday learnt that virtually every major building in St George’s, Grenada’s picturesque capital of English Georgian and French provincial buildings, suffered structural damage. Even York House, the home of the Grenada Parliament, was damaged. York House is being used to house the Commission of Inquiry established to investigate allegations that PM Mitchell accepted a US$500,000 bribe from a German national in consideration of an appointment as a diplomatic representative of Grenada. Speaking from the HMS Richmond yesterday, PM Mitchell said, “it’s beyond any imagination. We are terribly devastated. If you see the country today, it would be a surprise to anyone that we did not have more deaths than it appears at the moment. It is extremely tough on us.” Grenada has about 100,000 people, with 95,000 on the main island and 5,000 on Petite Martinique and Carriacou. Newsday learnt that Carriacou was totally wiped out.

With the country in total chaos, there were reports of sporadic looting in St George’s. Police headquarters, according to reports, was also badly damaged. PM Mitchell said about 90 percent of homes in Grenada lost their roofs, but officials had only done a rough assessment. Emergency workers, including the British naval officers, were having trouble reaching communities on the hilly island because many roads were blocked with uprooted telephone and electricity poles. Mitchell confirmed that an unknown number of criminals were on the loose after the country’s crumbling and overcrowded 17th century prison, a hilltop fortress in colonial days, was “completely devastated.” At least eight inmates went to a public shelter in Grand Anse, just south of the capital, relating how they escaped when winds ripped off the zinc roof and caved in stone walls at the Richmond Hill Prison. About 40 other people were staying in the shelter at the time, saying the prisoners stayed about two hours and then left.

It was unclear if escapees included former deputy prime minister Bernard Coard and 16 others jailed for life since their convictions for killing then Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and other cabinet ministers in a bloody takeover in October 1983. Coard and others were convicted in 1986 and sentenced to death. They lost their appeals in 1991 and within weeks, the then governor general commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment. Since then, there have been calls to release Coard and the others. Coard was part of the Bishop regime which ousted then Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a bloodless coup in 1979. Point Salines International Airport was badly damaged, with debris covering the runway. The runway was cleared late yesterday, but the control tower is not functional. International flights to Grenada have not resumed and food and medical supplies have been sent in by boats docking at the Carenage in St George’s.

Even though hurricane warnings have been discontinued for Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent, Barbados, St Lucia, and Martinique, Ivan, now a Category 4 hurricane, is heading to other islands. At 2 pm yesterday, Ivan’s eye was centered about 170 kilometres northeast of Bonaire. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 110 kilometres and tropical storm-force winds another 260 kilometres. The storm riled up battering waves that the Hurricane Centre warned could cause storm flooding of 1-1.5 metres and above normal tides with 13-18 centimetres of rain that could cause flash floods and mud slides. Ivan is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph (26 kph). The projected path shows that Ivan could hit Jamaica by Friday.

Ivan fells pregnant woman

By KARL E CUPID

A 32-year-old pregnant woman was crushed to death when a tree felled by high winds from hurricane Ivan crashed into her home at Bethel  in Tobago, Tuesday night. Ursula Jordan, also known as Ursula Homeward, was killed instantly as she lay on her bed. She was seven months pregnant with her first child, according to her sister Dorina, who related the tragic events. Ursula was pinned by the massive trunk of the tree, and the floor-boards had to be removed to extricate her lifeless body. The incident occurred around 8.30 pm. Dorina, 27, said: “She (Ursula) and I were chatting and she was saying how she never experienced a tragedy with a hurricane and roofs flying off and trees crashing and so on. She was concerned that the current (electricity) had gone and why we were not putting the (Dorina’s) children to bed. Then she said, ‘I going and sleep now,’” Dorina related.

“In the next two minutes I heard her bawl, ‘Dorina, tree,’ and we heard it bursting coming in. But the top of the tree was already on her, it had already pinned her.” Dorina said she burst through the door of the room occupied by her sister. “I feel her feet and it was warm. Then I ran around to my next sister’s room and tear down the partition with my bare hands to get to Ursula. And then I get in and I feel her pulse; there was no pulse at all. The tree came from the east side straight down on her face, louvres everything,” she told reporters. Ursula was the only fatality in Tobago as a result of the hurricane. In another incident, around 1.30 pm Tuesday, 78-year-old Emlyn Reid, of Goodwood, east Tobago, suffered a broken leg while being removed from her home after its roof had been blown off. Apart from these incidents, there were no other reports of casualties.

After a lull for about an hour late Tuesday afternoon, the rain and heavy winds resumed with a vengeance. By nightfall, there were ear-shattering peals of thunder and bolts of lightening illuminating the sky. It continued with winds, much heavier and erratic, through the first half of the night. By midnight, there was heavy pounding. At 1.20 am yesterday electrical power returned to areas in Tobago’s west end. The winds and rain stopped some three to four hours later; with only a slight drizzle persisting, and now and again a heavy breeze would interrupt the peace, calm and quiet as the outer bands of hurricane Ivan, ranting and raving, swept across Tobago.