The weather that went haywire

Tropical storms bring some of the worst disasters. People who live along coastlines prone to tropical storms are the ones who really suffer. Fishermen and their families are the main victims.

Not only homes and other property can be damaged or destroyed, they may also lose their boats and their lives. September and October were particularly tough on both sides of the globe.

In the Arabian Sea, 109 fishermen from Gujarat, India, were feared drowned during the 1 October cyclone.

Fortunately, 61 fishermen returned to Okha port 15 days after they had gone missing. Another group of 250 fishermen on board 30 boats were still missing and 18 boats were known to have been lost at the time of going to print. A typhoon also caused serious loss of life and great damage in Japan.

For some reason, this terrible loss of life amongst the fishing community often attracts little media attention. Far away and without the media on board, their ensuing distress gets scant exposure and seems to be considered of little consequence.

The Caribbean and parts of the Americas have also had their share of mega-twisters. From Florida, recently hit by four consecutive hurricanes, I have received a first-hand story from a friend. She not only goes out trawling, she is a fishermen's association activist. It epitomises the industry's agony even in the rich USA... Here's a selection:

First hand

First hand

"My God, you have not lived until you are on a 65-foot trawler that lays down along with five other trawlers that we tied ourselves together with. They all were on their sides, and we all were literally standing on the side of the vessels inside the wheelhouses, looking at each other with terror, fear and absolute shock. All of us thought that we were going to die that night. The winds that we rode through "Charley" clocked up to 134 mph -- I have seen God, I can tell you that, I truly have...My poor captain had no hair on his scalp left when we were finally let through the canal and back through the locks, but we at least made it through...Then we had to do the same thing again when Ms. "Jeannie" came through, except there were 34 or us tied up together...what a nightmare and one, I truly can tell you, I don't ever want to experience again...

"I rode out 'Frances' for nine days tied to a tree in the barge canal on a 70-foot shrimp trawler and we again clocked winds at 134 mph.

"We all were literally laying down on our sides thinking the boats were going to turn over -- I have never been so terrified in my life..."

Fighting the weather

She says they fought the weather "... until those in charge (!)..at the port decided it was okay to let us through the locks. We came steaming through, but at the draw bridge, the left side went up and stayed up and the right side decided to take a heaving crap and landed right in front of us. Imagine 20+ huge vessels moving at more than 15 knots (because we just wanted out of there), and the drawbridge falls right down in front of you...

"We all try to come to a screeching halt (impossible). So the first two went on rocks ...and the rest of us had to jam the brakes on and were stuck in the lock for four more days."

"No matter where I went between "Charlie" and "Frances", one of the darn things kept coming and then, when, right before "Ivan" hit, I was finally allowed to come back up home... I had a tornado go through the back yard of the property behind me at 2:30 a.m. I truly thought I was going to die... and spent close to seven or eight hours in a 5 x 5 foot bathroom. I refused to come out until the next morning only to find 55 mph winds bending 70-foot ancient oaks until their tops literally kissed the ground.

"I thought I would lose the house then and we went without power for more days than I want to count.

Devastation

ast coast is without docks, ice, refrigeration, fish houses, and so forth, and there are more fish than we have seen in five years!

"We went without anything for the entire two months that we had these four beasts hitting us, back to back. It was truly insane. No ice, no power, no generators, no food, no tarps, no plywood, no nothing...

"Our fishing industry down here is totally shattered. There are no docks left, the fish houses are flattened so we cannot land to unload, and if we can land there is no one to take the product or anywhere to store it as the refrigeration units were toasted as well.... Out of five fish houses in Fort Pierce alone there is only one with a structure standing and, even then, the refrigeration units are totally blasted.

"It will cost about $70,000 just to get them back in shape. I have never witnessed such destruction in my life, and I thought I had seen it all when I was on the boat...I have calculated a rough estimate of between 40 and 70 million dollars worth of damage to this state's fishing industry alone, and the damage reports keep on coming.

"... meanwhile I am picking fish for a living, when we can get out there to fish that is, and we are all so scared....This is a disaster over here, my friend... ...I can tell you truthfully that I don't want to ever see another hurricane in my life time...."

Joseph Conrad is not alone in writing about the terror of the sea weather.

Menakhem Ben-Yami is an adviser on Fisheries Management and Development to the Israeli Government.

benyami@actcom.net.il