More destruction in the 1800s and 1900s

THERE WAS a hurricane from October 12 to 14 in 1812, August 1813, October 1815, October and November 1818, August 1832, and October 1875. In the occurrence of August 18-19, 1880, in eastern Jamaica, there was damage to crops, and to the ships and wharves in Kingston. Five people drowned, and Kingston was extensively damaged. The island was not spared also by the storms of June 27 and August 20, 1886, nor by the one in St Mary and Portland on October 29, 1899.

The first major 20th-century hurricane for Jamaica happened on August 11, 1903, mainly on the northeastern coast. The total loss to the colony was estimated at US$2,500,000, and between 65 and 90 lives were lost. It wiped out the banana crop, causing many growers to go into bankruptcy. The following year, there was a tropical storm on June 13.

In 1912, a slow-moving hurricane hit the island on November 18. It was preceded by a week of rain that was reported to have been as much as three feet in some places. Hurricanes weren’t assigned names back then, but the storm became known afterwards as the 1912 Jamaica Hurricane.

In three consecutive years, 1915 (August 12 and 13, September 25-26), 1916 (August 15-16) and 1917 (September 23), hurricanes and a tropical storm destroyed bananas and other crops. More infrastructural damage took place on August 20, 1944, when a hurricane destroyed the coconut industry, many homes and public buildings.

Considered Jamaica’s deadliest natural disaster in the 20th century, Hurricane Charlie made landfall as a Category 3 storm on August 17/18, 1951. It caused immense wind damage and flooding from 17 inches of rain that fell in the capital city of Kingston. At the time, it was regarded Jamaica’s deadliest natural disaster of the 20th century.

The Daily Gleaner’s headlines screamed, ‘110 dead as hurricane rips south coast’, ‘Kingston smashed by savage storm’, ‘Morant Bay, Port Royal wrecked; Horror night as 125-mile winds rage’; ‘Sixteen million pounds damage done’, ‘Heavy havoc to bananas; coconut losses severe’, ‘Governor will launch hurricane relief fund’, ‘Family of 3, friend, dead in Port Royal disaster’. It turned out that the number of deaths was much more than 110. About 25,000 were left homeless, and there were US$50 million in damage to crop and properties.

HURRICANE ALLEN

Twenty-nine years later, Hurricane Allen (July 1972) brought Charlie’s ferocity to memory.

There were more winds, water and flooding such as those brought by Tropical Depression One (June 12, 1979), and 1980s Hurricane Allen. The former, the second tropical cyclone of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season, ravaged and flooded western Jamaica, killing about 40 people. The latter, regarded as one of the most powerful at the time.

The closest approach of a Category 5 hurricane was Allen, which tracked near the tip of southern Haiti, 150 miles away, but had weakened to Category 4 by the time it made its closest approach to Jamaica, about 25 miles away from the island, on August 6, 1980. Despite not making landfall, Allen caused US$100 million in damage and killed eight people.

Then came the big one, Gilbert, on September 12, 1988. Many Jamaicans were anticipating a major hurricane for the first time, but it was an islandwide trail of destruction that was revealed the morning after. The Category 4 killer eventually became the costliest storm up to that time, causing over US$700 million in damage. Approximately 45 people were killed, and thousands were accommodated in shelters set up by the government.

Packing winds of 130 mph and bringing significant storm surge on the eastern and southern shores of the island, Gilbert made landfall in Kingston, carved a path west across Jamaica and left a trail of destruction. The storm scraped the island from one end to the other, with the eyewall barrelling through the capital city of Kingston.

Up to Monday, October 27, 2025, Gilbert remains the strongest, deadliest, costliest and most destructive hurricane in Jamaica’s recorded history. But, with Category 5 Hurricane Melissa devastating central and western Jamaica on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, is Gilbert still holding that record?