The Tribune

TODAY’S Hurricane report in which residents were advised to rush the completion of their hurricane preparations as Hurricane Matthew had already started to affect Inagua reminded us of the day that Inagua’s hurricane myth was shattered.

Today we shall republish an article we wrote in this column on September 8, 2008 in which we tell of a trip we made on a mail boat to Inagua in the path of a hurricane. We must have been about 13 at the time. Headed “Inagua’s hurricane myth shattered” the article follows:

AS A youngster we were always led to believe that hurricanes and Inagua did not mix. Every island in the Bahamas had experienced a hurricane, but not Inagua.

Hurricanes would threaten but never strike, and so the myth grew that Inagua was the only island in the archipelago that had never hosted a hurricane: and by educated deduction, never would.

Recently Morton Salt’s managing director Glenn Bannister, told radio ZNS much the same story. Over the years, he said, Inagua was fortunate, because for as long as his memory served him, the island had never experienced the full onslaught from any major hurricane.

Yesterday (Sept. 7, 2008), Hurricane Ike, a dangerous category 4 storm, destroyed that myth.

“Boy we got hit, and we got hit hard. This is going to be devastating for the island,” said Mr Bannister as Ike pounded Mathew Town, doing millions of dollars in damage to the Morton Salt plant and devastating the island.

“Inagua is messed up,” said long time resident Carl Farquharson as we got him on his cell phone. “We went through hell this morning (Sunday).

Mr Farquharson said that shingles were blown off most of the houses, light poles were down, large trees uprooted, Morton’s plant badly damaged, roofs ripped from the two hurricane shelters – the Anglican Church and the Community Centre – but as far as he knew no one was injured.

He said Ike struck about 6am Sunday and “really hit hard until past 9am.” Apparently, the eye went over the island at about 11am. When we spoke with Mr Farquharson shortly after noon everything was still relatively quiet. Inaguans were out inspecting the damage. “We have no communication,” he said, “so I don’t know if we are in the eye of the storm, or if it has passed.”

Asked about nature’s edict that no hurricane should ever touch Inagua, he repied: “Well, it’s sure made up for it now…“ Cut off mid-sentence his cell phone went dead.

However, reporters speaking later with Mr Bannister learned that the lull of which Mr Farquharson spoke, was indeed the eye passing over with the storm resuming with terrible fury a short time later. Its vicious winds and lashing rain was expected to continue until 4pm.

As a young girl in the early forties we were on an Out Island mail boat headed for Mathew Town, Inagua, where we were to join two of our brothers for the summer as guests of the Erickson family, then the pioneers of what is now the Morton Salt plant. Everything was going smoothly — except shortly after crossing Nassau’s bar the mailboat’s water supply shut down.

The mail boat dropped anchor off Long Cay. After the mail and supplies had been rowed in to the settlement by dingy, the captain pulled up anchor and off we went to another island, where the next mail delivery was made. However, during that night the chief engineer died — Mr Hargreaves, an English resident whose son later served as Black Rod in the House of Assembly. It meant that the boat had to return to Long Cay to prepare Mr Hargreaves for burial. When the boat dropped anchor again a cable was delivered to us. It was an order from our Dad, Sir Etienne Dupuch, to get off the boat immediately and stay with Commissioner Harry Malone and his family until a hurricane, travelling our way, had passed. This was the first that the captain had heard that a hurricane was threatening. But for the death of engineer Hargreaves, we would have sailed right into its destructive winds.

The mailboat captain had had no word from his Nassau office about the hurricane. However, acting on the information in Sir Etienne’s cable, he sought safe anchor on the lee side of the island. He off-loaded all the passengers, and we walked in spotting rain across the island to the main settlement of Albert Town. We helped a weary mother across the island by carrying her small son piggy-back and her little daughter in our arms.

In Albert Town about 80 some residents turned out for a wake that cloudy afternoon, followed by the burial of Mr Hargreaves.

After several days the all-clear was given and we were again on our way to Mathew Town. During our time there the island was abuzz about an approaching hurricane. We were assured that nothing would happen because of the special pact Inagua had with nature. That evening we stood on the seashore and in the stormy mist saw the sails of a flounderiing sailboat fighting the angry seas. The next moring the sail boat was a wreck on the rocky shore. As for Inagua, the storm had passed and the sun was out.

At the end of the summer on our return to Nassau, this time with our two brothers, we stopped and went ashore at Long Cay to see Commissioner Malone and his family. The island had been devastated. The commissioner’s home had been badly damaged, as had the Anglican Church. During the hurricane residents took shelter in the small stone building in which the wake had been held for Mr Hargreaves. The room in which we had slept in the Commissioner’s home had caved in.

Once again a storm had stood off Ingaua, but turned away. However, poor little Albert Town had been crippled. Yesterday (Sept. 7, 2008), Hurricane Ike shattered the Inagua myth.