Morning I arrived back yesterday. It’s only a pit-stop because things are getting seriously bad out there now and I want to get back out there within a couple of weeks. Robbing and looting has started but so has the spreading of diseases which is killing people. I’m taking myself to A&E as a precaution because I’m not well at all and I’m showing all but one symptom of Leptospirosis. It’s also the same symptoms as you would get with a bad cold/covid. Hopefully it’s one of the latter. I don’t even know if you’ll know about all of this? I’m assuming because the devastation wasn’t caused by Jews that none of you would have heard about the seriousness of what’s happening out there in Jamaica (Pinkie might have through his friend) and that there’s been no street protests demanding the UK government help us out there? Has it been getting daily coverage? Didn’t think so. If I get the all clear tomorrow, I’m going to get all my jabs topped up once I feel better cos I’ve not had them done in about 10 years for going over there. I’m going to see my girls and then I’ll be heading back over with some supplies that are needed. There’s a lack of food. Still no signal, no power, no street lighting, no electricity, running water (no hot water) is intermittent and then you have to trust it to get washed in. Some days I went to the waterfall for a shower but it’s pot luck. You don’t know which waters are infected out there. We are doing well considering the circumstances we have found ourselves in. Properties are being repaired, the streets have all been tidied up and everyone is pulling together during the day and helping each other. Once it goes dark most people stay inside their home with a candle or a solar panel if they’ve been lucky enough to get hold of one. I’m trying my best with the animals but I told the lads they had to put a couple of dogs down just before I left because they were getting in a terrible state and could have infected humans but more so the other animals. We burnt their bodies straight after. Didn’t think I could ever make that call but it’s survival mode out there and you do what you gotta do for the best. A picture of my shower
It was horrendous mate. You’re right, it was a very slow moving hurricane and about 30 mile wide. When it hit, it was devastating but it keeps repeating. You think it’s over and then all of a sudden you hear all the seriously loud banging. All the windows blew at the same time in the street I was staying. Never heard a noise like it, honestly thought a few buses had been sweeped up in the storm and smashed against the houses. It hit us on the Tuesday about 3/4pm. It seemed to last a good while. I went walking out the house when it had finished, then I heard some guy screaming ‘Yo Captain, get back in it’s not finished’, so I did. He wasn’t wrong, less than five minutes later we went through another one. Apparently it’s called a storm surge. That guy saved me from possible serious injury or even worse. Grateful we don’t have anything like that here.
I was booing the coaches as they were all heading towards the airport Leaving was never an option for me, bro. I’m very loyal and I’ve got good friends out there, one guy I’m very close with. We do bits and pieces together out there, he helped me understand the way Jamaica works so I’ll always be grateful to him for taking me under his wing until I found my feet out there.
Over the years I've seen places that I use to frequent in the Everglades and Keys just completely wiped off the map. I always use to try and go at the end of the Hurricane season, the nearer to December generally brings better weather there, that's how I knew you were unlucky to be hit by something on that scale so late in the season and so slow moving. I've done Christmas and New Year out there and it was nice avoiding the subtropical rain fall you get every summer, with temps averaging around 26c at best, making it so much more pleasent. I tried to beat a very small storm onetime in my car earlier in the time of year, thinking I can get across one of the many bridges in time, it suddenly dawned on me with the speed of the storm, there's a reason those bridges have pull in areas, not something I ever want to repeat, and it didn't even touch anywhere near what you've been through. And Jamaica is a lot different to Florida in the sense it does not have the same resources nor econmic ability to recover so quickly. It's good seeing how it brings people together though in time of crisis.
