Remembering Alma’s fury

THE EDITOR: August 14, will be the 30th anniversary of the passage of hurricane “Alma.” I should like to share some recollections of the event with your readers. We became aware that the hurricane was on course to strike Trinidad the day before. The general consensus though was that it would miss as we were always spared that kind of calamity. This time, however, the hurricane hit. By about eight o’clock in the morning, a continuous roar had built up of rain and wind and leaves. Sheets of galvanise and whole branches were flying through the air. A hundred foot mahogany tree in our yard was bending almost to the ground with every gust of the wind and it was a wonder to us that it did not break. Almost every immortelle tree in the cocoa did break though with consequent damage to the cocoa trees underneath. There were dozens of trees across the roads after the storm.

The eye of the hurricane passed directly over Gran Couva and for a few minutes everything was abruptly dead still. Then the wind resumed from the opposite direction with equal violence. During the eye we listened to the radio only to be told that we should all remain calm as the storm had not yet reached Trinidad but was expected shortly. This after the storm had already battered Mayaro and Rio Claro and was hammering us. By lunchtime the hurricane had passed. Driving through the village after, almost every house had lost at least part of its roof. All the services too had failed and if memory serves, we were without water, lights and phone for 17, 18 and 21 days respectively. (It is probably coincidental but “Alma” serves as a watershed for the reliability of the services. Before “Alma” WASA was already giving trouble but phones and electricity were generally reliable. After, we went straight into the oil-boom period of no water, no phone and frequent blackouts.)

There was only one fatality immediately reported — a woman from Palmiste on the Cantaro Valley road killed by flying galvanise. Though afterwards anywhere between three and six were reported as the official death toll. Driving into Port-of-Spain in the night (for ice) the radio blithely informed us that “Alma” was not even a tropical storm as winds never exceeded 55 mph. And it became apparent that people up North did not have a clue about the scale of destruction in the middle of the island. Even today, “Alma” is usually referred to as a tropical storm. There was a report at the time though (which I have never been able to verify) that the anemometer at Fedchem(?) in Savonetta which was rated for 100 mph had been over-ranging during the hurricane and the wind had been estimated at 105-110 mph. I do not know if any of your readers can add anything concerning the wind strength of “Alma?”

ROBERT DE VERTEUIL
Gran Couva