Former AG to ride out Ivan in Jamaica

Former attorney general Keith Sobion, principal of the Norman Manley Law School in Mona Jamaica, yesterday said that while adequate precautions were being taken in Jamaica for Hurricane Ivan, “one could never really prepare for something like this. Things are frantic out there,” he said. “The supermarkets are full. The hardware shops are even worse. Most people were preparing for Charley (which changed course and spared Jamaica). But the intensity of Ivan hit home when they heard it was going to be worse than Gilbert. That reinforced in their minds what they were up against, especially when they saw what happened in Grenada where Ivan passed as Category Three,” he told Newsday.

Sobion said he, like everyone else, had been stocking up on emergency essentials. Still displaying his Trinidad sense of humour, he said there was one vital supply he was missing. “No Crix in the grocery. I had to settle for another brand of crackers.” Sobion, who said he was tracking the progress of Ivan both on the local and international media, stated that the part of Jamaica where he was located (Mona, which is just outside of Kingston) is expected to be the first area to be hit. He said while the housing in Jamaica was a real mix, he anticipated that if Ivan hits, some of the inner city communities would suffer serious damage. “There are still a lot of zinc-coated (galvanise) and wooden houses there,” he said. He said the government was doing some evacuation of low-lying areas and was asking people to leave these areas by 6 pm yesterday afternoon.

He said Port Royal, which is a low strip of land in the middle of the sea, was also due to be evacuated. Sobion, who will be facing the hurricane in Jamaica with his wife Judith and one son, said this is his first real hurricane. He said his last experience of a hurricane was Hurricane Janet, which hit Trinidad in the 1950s. “I was a little boy and was quite excited at seeing galvanise flying,” he recalled. “We are comfortable so far until things warm up and then I suppose we will start to panic,” he said. Sobion said he was telling his neighbour, who is a Barbadian, that if this were Trinidad and Tobago they would be organising a hurricane party.

“The Mayor of Kingston, who appeared on television yesterday morning to implore people to take the threat of Ivan seriously, was relating a story a fellow was telling him only some moments earlier, ‘why you all keep fooling us. Look the sun shining,’” Sobion said. He said the weather was pretty calm. It almost seemed like a normal day, with the sun shining brightly. However, he said, it is expected that by 6 to 7 pm (last night) there would be heavier winds — tropical storm winds for the next 24 to 36 hours, which would then intensify into hurricane strength. Told that the TT Government had sent a BWIA plane to Jamaica to bring home Trinidad and Tobago students, Sobion was then asked if he would consider getting on that flight. He replied half-jokingly: “Well they would hardly take me for a student. No I’ll be here.”