The Tribune

WITH ALL the mind-boggling technical equipment created by man to track storms there is nothing that can outstrip nature’s early warning signals.

Irma, now churning into our waters, has already etched her name in the annals of history as the world’s most dangerous hurricane to be recorded. But nature– not the creation of man — was the first to detect her approach.

If one wants to understand the true meaning of the expression “calm before the storm” just go outside before the storm approaches and experience the dead calm, the pink skies, tree leaves not moving, warm air hardly circulating — and the birds. The birds have always been our early warning signal that something is amiss with nature.

We live in an area surrounded by trees, and where there are trees there are many birds of all colours, shapes and sizes. For weeks now, the birds in our trees have been flitting from tree branch to tree branch, frantically chirping to each other. Flying hither and thither obviously in search of a safe haven. To hear them would have made one’s heart bleed, their cry was a cry of fear – a call for help. Over the years, we have only seen this behaviour when a hurricane was about to form. Man was as yet unaware of the danger, but nature had shared its secret with our tiny, feathered friends. There was a dead calm outside yesterday, but not a single bird in sight, or within hearing. As Bahamians were hastily moving to their shelters and securing their homes, we pray that these tiny creatures had a last found safe haven.

Because of our affinity with the birds, we decided to telephone Casper Nix Burrows, the Bahamas National Trust Park Warden in Inagua, to discover the state of the flamingoes now that a storm was so near. We were always told that when nature lets them down as their source of food or water, the flamingoes always migrate to other islands until the coast is clear to return to their nesting grounds.

There was also a myth attached to Inagua that 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.

In 2008, Morton Salt’s then 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.

However, on September 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. Asked about nature’s edict that no hurricane should ever touch Inagua, he replied: “Well, it’s sure made up for it now.”

(Incidentally, The Tribune is probably the only publication that insists on giving this small town’s main settlement the correct spelling of its name. The accepted spelling of Matthew is with two “t”s, but Inagua’s Mathew Town is unique — its Mathew is spelt with one “t”, because it was named after Governor B Mathew (1844-1849) who spelt his surname with one “t”. The late Sir Etienne Dupuch, publisher of this newspaper for over 50 years, represented Inagua in the House of Assembly for many years and God help any Tribune reporter who dared give his precious Mathew Town two “t”s).

Mr Burrows, who is also on Inagua’s government board now in charge of the hurricane shelters, said that up to the time he was speaking with us – shortly after 4pm yesterday— there was no one in the shelters. On Wednesday 500 Inaguans had been airlifted to shelters and family in Nassau and another 20 were flown to Nassau yesterday.

About 10pm on Wednesday, Mr Burrows, with Chief Councillor Amapola Lindo, sister Tara Lindo, and brother, Gian Burrows, drove around to do a head count of persons left on the island in their care during the storm. He estimates that 250 persons are still on the island. Assisting them are members of the Police and Defence Forces. And as we talked with him a generator was being moved into the centre to provide electricity when the current fails.

Mr Burrows said that Inaguans had been expecting rain since about 2pm yesterday, but it wasn’t until 4:30pm that the island started to see the first sign of the approaching storm.

As for the flamingoes, he said, there were about 100 young birds in the Town ponds and about 20 miles out at Lake Rosa there were still about 2,000 birds. This was nothing, he said, the normal flamingo count this year was between 15,000 to 20,000 birds. With all the surrounding islands, even into Florida threatened by Irma, we don’t know where our national bird will find safe haven. If they don’t return after the storm, we shall know that they were Irma’s victims.

And now we pray that Irma will have mercy on The Bahamas and all our inhabitants will come out, possibly shaken, but unscathed.