Dancing in a Hurricane

Abstract

HURRICANE GILBERT WAS A CATEGORY 5 STORM which struck Jamaica on 12 September 1988 before continuing on to the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico where it made landfall two days later. Gilbert was called the storm of the century as it set records for size, amount of rainfall, atmospheric pressure, track, and total energy.1 Forty-five people were killed in Jamaica and the island suffered widespread infrastructural damage (75 percent of housing stock was damaged),2 and significant loss of crops and livestock.3 It took Jamaica over six months to move everyone out of shelters and into new houses.4 By December 1988, tourist resorts were once again open to the public5 as the island saw the end of the emergency response period, and the beginning of a lengthy process of economic and social recovery. From September 1988 onwards, a number of texts were produced to narrate the story of Gilbert’s landing and the destruction the storm caused on the island. There were two types of texts: those representing the state’s view of the hurricane and its aftermath (statements by officials and government reports), and those representing the public’s view of Gilbert (witnesses’ testimonials, artistic works reflecting public sentiment, and so on). We will examine how Hurricane Gilbert was described in the two types of texts. We will begin with the statements by government officials and newspaper coverage of the effects the hurricane had on the island immediately after the landfall, and within the first three months of the aftermath. The texts used for this purpose come from a compilation of newspaper reports and statements by government officials.6 We will then proceed to the analysis of two songs written shortly after the hurricane: “Wild Gilbert” by Lloyd Lovindeer7 and “Gilbert Attack Us” by Banana Man.8 We aim to determine whether the way these songs depict Gilbert is similar to that presented in the state texts or whether there are significant