Jamaica: A Decade Lost in a Day

After Hurricane Gilbert finished howling and hammering Jamaica last Monday, the lovely green-and-gold island had been transformed into a strew of twisted, tilted, ripped and battered debris. Kingston and outlying areas alike were an immense litter of downed trees, broken utility poles, tangles of electrical wires, a vista of demolished houses and blown tin roofs. The more the stunned Jamaicans meandered among the ruins, the worse things looked. Of the 2 1/2 million inhabitants, 500,000 were suddenly homeless; four-fifths of the nation's homes had been damaged or destroyed. Obstructions blocked and sealed off streets and roads. Said Prime Minister Edward P.G....

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