MUD & Mayhem

Tropical storm Nicole - ragged and frantic - hammered Jamaica last week. The unofficial death count is 13; eight are missing.

At peak sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and heavy sustained rainfall for two consecutive days that forced schools and some businesses to close, Nicole overwhelmed storm drains, ripped up roadways, collapsed bridges, and flooded and toppled buildings.

Sandy Park Gully near Liguanea in St Andrew perhaps felt the greatest impact of Nicole's onslaught. A house was washed away as the banks of the gully on which it had been built gave way, killing one child. Five family members are still missing. Frantic residents mounted demonstrations, appealing for more help to find the presumed dead bodies.

Also in St Andrew, three Norbrook construction workers were killed after a wall collapsed on a shed in which they were sleeping at the time.

In what seems like a freak act of nature, a five-year-old girl was crushed to death as a tree branch crashed down on the board house in which she lived in Christian Pen, St Catherine, causing it to cave in on her.

As the rain lashed the island unabated, two elderly male farmers in Flaggaman, St Elizabeth, were swept away.

The severity of Nicole's passage across the island trapped many people in their homes, and left many without water or electricity It is estimated that more than 300,000 residences - roughly 40 per cent of the population - were without power in the aftermath of the storm.

Over in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, what has been described as a tornado hit the community overnight on Tuesday, ripping the roofs off some buildings, including the centuries-old Baptist Church, and hospitalising four persons.