The Major Hurricanes To Affect The Bahamas
Personal Recollections of Some of the Greatest Storms to Affect the Bahamas
Perfect Bound Softcover
The Major Hurricanes to Affect The Bahamas-Personal recollections of some of the Greatest storms to affect the Bahamas-highlights historical Hurricanes that have impacted the Bahamas and because of last year’s record breaking Hurricane season and the record breaking damages that these hurricanes have inflicted to us here in The Bahamas and the region as a whole it is a very timely book. Through vivid pictures of actual damages from these storms of the past and present day, it shows the damages that these storms have inflicted on the country of The Bahamas and the need to be prepared for these storms. This book highlights all of the major hurricanes to affect The Bahamas from 1500 to present day Hurricanes like Andrew, Wilma, Frances and Jeanne and even Katrina. It further states the damages that all of these individual hurricanes inflicted to The Bahamas on an Island by Island basis. What is also included in the book, are actual amazing pictures of all of the major hurricane damages from most of these storms including the Hurricanes of 1886, 1926, 1929, Betsy, Donna, David, Andrew, Floyd, Michelle, Frances, Jeanne and Wilma. Also included in this book is an introspective look at Hurricanes-how they are formed? What makes them work, the anatomy of a hurricane, the origins of a hurricane and where the name hurricane originated and what the future hold for Hurricanes by experts in the Field of Meteorology here in the Bahamas, The Caribbean and the United States, Like Professor William Gray, Max Mayfield(Director of The National Hurricane Center in Miami) Kathy Caesar(Tropical Meteorologist Lecturer at The Caribbean Meteorological Institute)and Michael Stubbs(Chief Climatologists at The Department of Meteorology here in Nassau) and others who all have highlighted the need to be prepared for these storms and the damages that these storms are capable of inflicting on coastal communities. Also included is the track of each of the major storms that moved through The Bahamas. Finally, also included are amazing and heart-rending personal recollections and experiences of most of the major hurricanes to affect the Bahamas. Included in these recollections are, Crystal Pintard who explained how she lost her baby in Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Sir Orville Turnquest on his experiences with hurricanes and touring respective islands and being amazed by the damages that Hurricane Andrew had inflicted to these islands just after they had won the election. Also included are residents who lived though the Hurricane of 1926 like, Mr. Conrad Knowles on how the hurricane destroyed his father’s home in Long Island and Mrs. Viola Collie told how she lost two of her sisters to this deadly storm living on the island of Acklins. Mrs. Francita Rolle who recalls on how her fisherman father Prince Rolle was saved from sure death when he was caught at sea in the Hurricane of 1929 and was rescued by a dog called ‘Speak your Mind’ who swam him into land on his back and then caught a crab for him to eat when they got into the land. There is also an account from the present Governor General of the Bahamas Hon A.D. Hanna and his experiences with hurricanes growing up on the island and living in Nassau. Also included are recollections from the former Governor General Sir Clifford Darling who when the Hurricane of 1926 blew the roof of their house in Acklins, his brother took a hand saw and cut a hole in the roof to live in that roof for about two weeks after the storm had passed. Also included are numerous accounts of persons who lived through many of these storms and survived to give me their personal accounts. A must read account is by Terrance Keogh who experienced a powerful hurricane in 1932 on the island of Abaco in The Bahamas.
People all over the world are affected by a variety of weather conditions, and here in this region is no exception. We in This region have our share of droughts, frontal systems, floods and hurricanes that affect our lives on a daily basis. People depend on the weather in many different ways. Farmers depend on the rains to water their crops, sailors count on the strong winds to fill their sails, and tourists take the sunshine for granted for a great vacation. Yet the weather at times is anything but dependable or predictable. The earth’s atmosphere is always in constant turmoil, a chaotic brew of gases and water kept in constant motion by the sun’s energy. Sometimes this energy is unleashed with sudden and unexpected savagery especially with hurricanes, which can turn our islands into a wasteland of rubble. However, thanks to meteorologists, our ability to predict where chaos might strike next is now better than ever, yet weather remains the most deadly natural forces at work on our planet.
The history of hurricanes and the naming process... Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are all the same kind of violent storms originating over warm ocean waters and are called by different names all over the world. A Hurricane (derived from a Carib Indian word) is typically used to describe these storms when they originate in the tropical Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea. A Hurricane is the name given to these intense storms of tropical origin, with sustained winds exceeding 64 knots (74 miles per hour), which forms over the warm Northern Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific oceans. This same type of storm is given different names in different regions of the world. In Australia they are called Cyclones or by the much more colourful words of ‘Willy-Willies’ (The name Willy-Willy began as “whirlwind” which describes the spiraling winds inside of a cyclone and eventually evolved into the term “whirly-whirly” which eventually evolved into “Willy-Willy”) and in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, they are simply called Cyclones (an English name based on a Greek word meaning “coil” as in “coil of a snake” because of the winds that spiral within them) and are not named even to this day. They are called Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean and Eastern North Pacific Oceans (east of the International Dateline). While they are called Typhoons (originating from the Chinese word ‘Ty-Fung’ translated to mean ‘Big Wind’…) in the Western North Pacific, in the Philippines and the South China Sea (west of the International Dateline) they are known as Baguios (or simply a Typhoon), but whatever name they are known by in different regions of the world, they refer to the same weather phenomena a Tropical Cyclone. However, by World Meteorological Organization International Agreement, the term Tropical Cyclone is the general term given to all hurricane-type storms that originate over tropical waters. The term Cyclone, used by meteorologists, refers to an area of low pressure in which winds move counterclockwise around the low pressure center and are usually attended by bad weather and strong wind speeds. A tropical cyclone is a large-scale, warm-core low-pressure storm that develops not along a front or subtropical waters and that has a definite organized circulation. There are several theories about the origin of the word Hurricane; some people believe it originated from the Caribbean Indians who named their storm god ‘Huracan’ and over time it eventually evolved into the word ‘HURRICANE’. A next popular theory is that it came from the Mayan Indians of Mexico who had an ancient word for these storms, called ‘HURRIKAN’. Actually, the first human record of hurricanes can be found in the ancient Mayan hieroglyphics. According to legend, the Mayan rain god, Chac, sent rain for the crops. But he also sent hurricanes, which destroyed crops and flooded villages. The Mayans hoped that if they made offerings to Chac, the rains would continue to fall, but the storms would cease…… Finally, the Native American Indians had a word for these powerful storms, which they called ‘HURUCANE’ meaning ‘evil spirit of the wind.’
While writing my previous book “The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1929” I was impacted so much by a particular lady's recollection that it stayed with me to this day...well major hurricanes are like that...most of us who sadly experience them will have their experiences with these deadly storms etched in the memory banks of their brain for the rest of their
I am a Meteorologist-weather forecaster working at the Department of Meteorology for the last 15 years-prior to that I majored in Geography at the College of the Bahamas. I then attended The Caribbean Meteorological Institute in Barbados where I majored in weather forecasting. My love for hurricanes and the weather came about while growing up on the island of Andros-another island in The Bahamas where I grew up listening to my parents, grand parents and other older residents in the community talking about this major hurricane which occured in 1929 and devastated The Bahamas...That peaked my interest in hurricanes and got me started on writing my first book called "The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1929-Personal Recollections of the Greatest storm of the 20th Century in The Bahamas" and the rest is history....
Perfect Bound Softcover
Sale Price $36.15