On the 19th of Oct 1999 Antigua & Barbuda were poised for the arrival of hurricane Jose. The weather forecast was predicting that Jose would pass south of Antigua and many residents thought that we would only be brushed by storm force winds. Down at the harbors boaters tied down their vessels. Some were taking no chances. Others were more casual... and regretted it. Jose was expected to be a category one hurricane with winds building from 3 a.m. Wednesday 20th. In fact the night was only a little turbulent and we awoke in the morning to gusty but moderate winds.... which provided us with a false sense of security. Read my diary of the storm here. But at around 10.30 am, when we all thought we were well into the passing of the storm, winds from the northeast increased... to their strongest just before the eye at about 12.15. At the US air base, where several roofs were torn off, gusts up to 118 mph were measured. Jose had turned into a category two hurricane, not the fiercest to hit us in recent years but certainly the sneakiest. For us in the north of the island the first half of the storm was the worst. But for those in the south the second half was the worst as José returned from the southwest. Because the eye of the storm was not central the second visitation of hurricane force winds was short lived.... about two hours, before Jose subside to sub tropical storm strength. The following day was one of constant rain which soaked everything and caused flooding in some areas. Twenty-four shelters were activated and housed 506 persons.

THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT DAMAGE WAS FAR LESS THAN GEORGES CREATED LAST YEAR AND IN ONLY A WEEK ANTIGUA WAS BACK ON IT'S FEET . (It only took a month after last years storm which caused far more damage). That made it no less stressful for the unfortunate few that experienced Jose's wrath. According to the National Office of Disaster Services, 14 people were injured.... None of them were tourists.

Power - Pretty well all hotels have standby utilities in place so it is residents and businesses that are affected by outages. Even so, power has now been restored to MOST areas. Here's why recovery was so quick....

Does anything look odd in the photo on the right? It should because this was taken on the 21st Oct, one day after the hurricane. LOOK AT HOW STRAIGHT THE UTILITY POLES ARE! Even the fence to the airport stands intact. The reason power is being restored so quickly is because most cables stayed on the poles and most poles remained upright. Of course there were a few exceptions.... but surprisingly few.

Damage - The storm uprooted trees, devastated many gardens, destroyed a few homes but only seriously affected two hotels. Telephone lines, electricity and water supply were all effected for a while... we expect that and it was worse in some areas than others. But the measure of a hurricanes power is how long it takes for the bulk of society to get back to normal, and by that standard Jose was a featherweight. For more details about damage in specific areas click here.

Roads - All clear

One of the immediate side effects of a hurricane is roads blocked by trees, power cables and utility poles. It was very noticeable after Jose that the problem was minimal. You can see in this photo how the shrubs and small trees were broken and twisted into the road. We got out our machetes and created a multitude of neat piles along the roadside. Then APUA came buy with their back-hoes and cleared away the piles. In fact they got out perhaps a little too quickly.... before we could finish clearing everything in our yards. I guess their may be a few more piles.

In most areas the roadsides look a little hewn but in a week or two new growth will mask that.

Water - Water seems OK now in most areas.

Although our everyday lives have been disrupted.... infrastructure has returned very swiftly. There was no panic (though a few aggressions were released by the queues of people lined up for gas and diesel). Unlike other hurricanes there is very little defoliage and plants that have now been cut back are growing quickly. V.C. Bird International Airport was closed for twenty-four hours but it had reopened by Thursday when a British Airways and Virgin Atlantic flights came in.

The Antigua and Barbuda Red Cross have been distributing tarpaulins and plastic sheetingto people whose roofs sustained damage and government's emergency supplies including plastic sheetings, blankets and water bottles are being made avalable to those who need them.

In Barbuda, there were no reports of injuries and in fact only one of three shelters was occupied.

Some quarters are attributing a swift recovery upon adequate preparedness. Certainly damage has been minimized by that. But in the final analysis we were probably just plain lucky that when the storm made it's unlikely turn towards Antigua it wasn't as big as past hurricanes have been.

VISITORS TO OUR FAIR SHORES WILL NOT SEE MUCH SIGN OF DAMAGE BY THE SECOND WEEK OF NOVEMBER.

 

The text of the Prime Minister's address to the nation can be read here.

Back to our main hurricane reports page

 

This site is sponsored by Nick Maley's Island Arts

We have no funding for this site which we offer as corporate citizens interested in the economic recovery of the island through the exchange of honest information. If you appreciate our efforts perhaps you will stop by our gallery when you visit Antigua and support us by buying some inexpensive artwork.

 

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