WHAT WILL IT TAKE???

Something seems to have triggered a rash of souvenir pictures and facebook posts of hurricane Luis. Possible the tentative election date on the Dutch side.


Anyway, having looked at pictures and statistics that brought back many not so nice memories, among which was the "official" announcement to the rest of the world, I suppose for the sake of tourism, without which everybody thinks we are nothing, that hurricane Luis only caused 2 deaths on St. Martin


O yes, after blowing at 145 mph for 36 hours, sinking something like 1200 boats in the lagoon, flattening only God knows how many shacks and not-shacks all over the island, watching hilicopters cartin away nobody knows what for weeks on end, if anybody who was here at that time still wants to believe that crap, they need to see a shrink.


Now, a little look further back at another hurricane. Hurricane Donna which was said to be the last "big one" before Luis and which dates back to September 4, 1960. I remember it was said that a 160 mph gust of wind broke the anemometer at Julianba Airport during that storm. That was a healthy gust of wind.


However, for the record, while I, as a teenager, slept through most of Hurricane Donna, that hurricane blew for one night. When I woke up the next morning, everything was over but the cleanup.


As I said before, Luis blew for 36 hours. I closed up my house on Monday everning and on Wednesday morning it took 3 people to open my front door.


Unofficial statistics have given numbers like 800 dead and even that may be a conservative estimate because back in those glory days nobody had a clue how many people resided on St. Martin. Nobody knows how many family members buried other family members in the hills.


If we survive climate change and global warming, archaeologists will have a field day wondering what kinds of settlements we had in those hills, there will be so many skeletons to unearth.


Now, the main point is that no proper statistics will ever be available mostley because the greater part of those "deported" by hurricane Luis were on the island illegally.


Today, 19 years down the line, nobody still knows how many people reside on St. Martin, whether French or Dutch side.


The next hurricane of that category, and from where we sit today, nobody knows when that will be, will be a lawsuit made in heaven against the governments of both sides of the island for not having done what they should have done.