More than 100 people  died in the devastating 1951 storm that hit Jamaica. Reports are that the damage started minutes after the hurricane made landfall. Entire communities were flattened and hundreds lost everything they owned.

Published Monday, August 20, 1951

110 DEAD AS HURRICANE RIPS SOUTH COAST

Kingston smashed by a savage storm

Morant Bay, Port Royal Wrecked; Horrow night as 125 mph winds rage

Heavy havoc to bananas, coconut losses severe

DEAD 110 and an estimated £6,000,000 in damage to buildings, cultivations and services is the toll of the most staggering and devastating hurricane that Jamaica has suffered in its long weather-marked history. From out of the south-east Caribbean the season’s third chartered hurricane, hurried, then slowed, gathered its venom, and, on Friday night, with 125-mile-per-hour winds, crashed across St Thomas, Kingston,  St Andrew and Port Royal and several sections of other southern parishes. 

The full extent of the rural damage is not yet known, but first reports indicate that there was extensive damage to the banana industry, coconuts, and in other crops.

Morant Bay has been destroyed. Port Royal has been laid flat. Damage in Spanish Town, in May Pen, and in other parish towns of the island has been extensive. And Kingston has received the heaviest blow since the earthquake and fire of 1907 brought it tumbling down in ruins.

54 Known Dead in the Corporate Area.

The city itself, including the harbour where ships tossed upon mountainous waves and smashed themselves against each other and against the beaches and piers and the outer reaches of the Corporate Area accounted for 54 people  known to have been killed in the wind and the rain, and for fully £13,000,000 of the estimated £16,000,000 damage.

The Caribbean storm, moving forward at a pace of 20 miles, hurled its fury around at speeds of 125 miles per hour which moved north, south, east and west, dashed itself against St Thomas and laid waste the parish to such an extent that reports which reached Kingston late last night told of dreadful damage, including an 80-per- cent destruction of Morant Bay.

So far 34 people are known to have been killed in that parish, but reports of 30 dead in the Yallahs Valley area and in other parts of St Thomas are expected to bring the total casualties to somewhere near 150 people if present reports are substantiated.

A Government-directed relief mission sailed from Kingston last night for Morant Bay.

The hurricane was first heard of Wednesday when it was reported to be boiling up in the vicinity of the Leeward Islands, travelling slowly west by north past Mona passage. It took a little over 48 hours to reach the island. But it gathered size, speed and intensity as it moved along, and by the time it hurled its disaster-laden winds over the south-east coast of the island it was moving forward at the rate of 20 miles per hour with centre winds rushing around the compass points at speeds up to 125 miles per hour.

The first positive information of its near arrival was the gentle west wind which blew up at about 9:15 Friday evening for a few minutes then drifted away. Fifteen minutes later the hurricane came. It hit with full fury from the very first. It pounded with sudden force unleashing all its power with one huge roar which levelled Port Royal and destroyed the Palisadoes Airport installations as it pushed its way across the leaping mountainous sea to crash through Kingston, ripping roads, uprooting giant trees, snapping steel and telegraph posts like matchwood.

Ten minutes of such ferocity was sufficient to paralyse the city knocking out electric and communication services, and blocking transportation. And while the head-winds turned across and out of the city touching St Andrew to go pounding through Spanish Town and on across the countryside, the circular winds came in to throw ships off their moorings and up against the Palisadoes road and the airport runway and to complete the damage that had begun.

The hurricane reached its greatest intensity in the first 45  minutes and then kept a sustained and dangerous strength for the next three hours. After 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, the winds descended appreciably, but the driving rain increased the terrors of the darkened storm-lashed night and women and children huddled screaming in rain-washed wall corners, some thinking of those whom they knew to be dead, while others prayed for the dawn.

Crop Damage

With communications between Kingston and the rest of the island cut, full details of the damage done by the hurricane could not be known up to last night, but first reports indicate widespread damage in banana, coconut and other cultivations in St Thomas, Portland, St Mary, St Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester as well as in sections of St Andrew; and heavy property loss in St Catherine and other areas of the island which were caught in the full fury of the storm as it pushed its way across the countryside.

By yesterday afternoon, 55 people were known to be dead in the rural areas, 16 in St Catherine and two in Clarendon, three in St Mary, and 32 in St Thomas.

The hurricane came out of the Caribbean in the dark of night Friday and took a north-westerly course across the island after it had struck its first disaster-laden blows along the south-east coast of the island from Bowden to Passage Fort.

When it had past Morant Bay, Yallahs and Port Royal, these towns had been destroyed and devastation was in every section of Kingston. Hundreds of buildings were damaged, some completely destroyed and thousands of people were left homeless as emergency services fought to keep pace with the growing incidence of homelessness, nakedness and hunger.

Tale of Damage

Saturday morning after a night in which the wind and the rain had slashed and hammered at the city between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. Kingston awakened, still reeling from the heavy blow to find damage heaped upon damage from east to west and from north to south, while in the Harbour two yachts and 3 vessels had been sunk taking 19 lives and others had slipped their moorings to crash against beaches and piers.

The Palisadoes Airport was levelled along with eastern Kingston and lower St Andrew districts as Springfield, Bournemouth Gardens, Mountain View, Eden Gardens, Brown’s Town, Passmore Town, Franklin Town, Rollington Town and Vineyard Town, were so badly destroyed that it appeared as if a giant hand had moved among them during the night ripping the roots from off the houses and crumbling the weaker ones.

But all other sections of the city from east to west, below and above East Queen Street stretching north to a line passing through Cross Roads from Cockburn Pen to Mountain View Avenue and Old Hope Road there was concentrated damage which made it impossible for comparisons to be drawn between any sections of the city.

Only in central lower St Andrew, in an area running just above Half-way Tree, was damage kept to a minimum. In all other sections of the Corporate Area few buildings escaped damage and the loss in furniture and home furnishings cannot be estimated.

Most of those dead were killed by collapsing buildings, but seven drowned by flooding on the land and 16 in the harbour.

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