Sunday September 05, 2004.
I'm in New York City for the Labour Day Celebrations in the midst of the Hurricane Season and Ivan has been churning up in the Atlantic. We've just experienced Charley and Frances in the Southern USA and it seems like a busy Hurricane Season.
What is more disturbing is that Grenada, for years regarded as outside the Hurricane Belt, is this year, getting a whole lot more attention from Mother Nature. First there was the depression (on Carnival Monday that caused Carnival to be cancelled that day) that later went on to spawn Charley, then there was Tropical Storm Earl that fizzled out as it passed over Grenada in August and now the news was not looking good. Ivan was already a well developed Hurricane making a steadily western route accross the Atlantic. It's packing winds of over 120 miles per hour and is continuing on a westward path - headed straight for home - GRENADA.
Grenada has not seen a Hurricane for 49 years, the last one to hit being Hurricane Janet in 1955 when more than half the population was not even born as yet. Most Grenadians will only have a memory of Tropical Storm Arthur which hit Grenada in 1990 or 1991. It looks like Ivan may be a lot worse than Janet (much less Arthur) and I am, to be honest, worried.
I had cause to relax on Saturday when Ivan began what appeared to be change in direction to the North West which is the usual course of the majority of hurricanes. On this track it would pass to the North of the island and we may escape serious damage - but today, this man Ivan has decided to head for home - my home, and am beginning to think that I should have been home to take care of business.
I go to bed hoping that Ivan may yet change course and that my island would be spared. But I forgot to tell Ivan.
