Although Hurricane Flora didn't make a direct hit on Jamaica, it inflicted a devastating impact on the island. The aftermath witnessed loss of lives and property, with floodwaters inundating parts of the Coorporate Area. Many residents had to be evacuated to safe havens due to the destruction of their homes.

Published Saturday, October 7, 1963

The Star

Terrible trail of Flora

By Star Police Reporter

FIVE PERSONS, INCLUDING A FAMILY of three, in Western St Andrew are believed have lost their lives as a result of the flood rings now sweeping the entire island due to the proximity of Flora.

Tenants at premises No. 61 Waltham Park Road told the police that they are positive that the Mitchell family of three, who occupied a five-apartment building on these lands, were washed away down the gully.

The missing family believed drowned are Mr Lynden Mitchell, 50, carpenter; his wife Doris, 38; and Mr. Mitchell's daughter (not by his wife) Yvonne Mitchell, aged between 12 and 13 years.

Body on beach

The fourth person is Alexander Cobb, 42-year-old fisherman of White Wing City, Cockburn Pen, who had left home early yesterday morning to go and look after his canoe at Hunt's Bay fishing beach, and whose body was found at a shop at the corner of Cockburn Avenue and Spanish Town Road, 1.20 p.m. yesterday.

This morning a fifth body, identified as that of Ronald Williams, fisherman, of a Greenwich Town address, was found washed out on a beach near the business establishment of Messrs. T. Geddes Grant Ltd., Marcus Garvey Drive. The police theory in view of a nasty head wound he sustained is that foul play might be involved. At the time of going to press, a team of policemen and civilians, under the direction of Deputy Supt. C. A. Fullerton, in charge of the Southern St Andrew Division, was out searching for the bodies of the Mitchell family.

When he returned

Mr George Plummer, of 72 Woodpecker Avenue, Cockburn Pen, told the STAR and the police that he was with his sister, Mrs Mitchell, and other members of the family up to 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. He left and returned to the home this morning only to see a portion of the house and to be told by other occupants of the lands that they witnessed when his sister and other members of her family were washed away by the torrential waters.

Plummer then went to all the shelters provided for persons rendered homeless in the area in search of his family, and when he could not find them or hear any news of them, he reported the matter of their being missing to the Hunt's Bay Police.

In the case of the man found on the beach this morning, the police have been told that he was last seen on board a fishing boat off the Greenwich Town beach on Saturday evening.

Cons. N. J. McRae, of the  Police Station, found the body this morning, and detectives from Hunt's Bay station are now investigating the circumstances surrounding this man's death.

When a post-mortem examination is performed on the body sometime today, the police will know whether he died by drowning or by foul means.

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