Many opinions have been flying around social media throughout the life of Hurricane Matthew and I’m sure that these will continue to be part of the package deal until Matthew gets his comeuppance and dies a tragic death over the Atlantic Ocean.

When we got wind (pardon the pun, I couldn’t resist!) of the wobbly weather coming our way early last week, I must admit that I was in La La Land, more through hopefulness than anything else. However, when I realised that Matthew posed a real threat to The Rock, upon which we live, I swiftly made a list of all the preparations and precautions that my family and I would have to make and take. I’ve been through this before – Allen, Gilbert, Ivan, Dean, Gustav, Sandy. Imagine, in my almost 41 years of life, at least some places (in some cases, the entire island) in Jamaica have been quite badly affected by six hurricanes. In all circumstances, my family has taken the possibility of the hurricane causing devastation to Jamaica quite seriously. Why wouldn’t we? I’m not going to list all the ways in which the six aforementioned storms did in fact affect us, because all that information is either known by my readers or may be found on the Internet. However, due to these instances, there was no way we were letting our guard down this time around.

House stocked with food and water to last a long time (we live on a hill, where the roads leading to our house are prone to landslides), windows and doors battened down, pictures and mirrors removed from walls, and basically all items secured as best as possible, we were as ready for the worst case scenario as possible. My parents, who live in the country, equipped themselves similarly, but went one step further. You see, they had this enormously tall Norfolk Island Pine Tree, which they planted as a suckling back in 1973. This tree had survived all previous storms, but Matthew was teetering between a Category 4 and Category 5 hurricane and the said tree was considerably taller (one might say, “biglier” 😂) than it was when the last devastating hurricane – Gilbert – blew into our air space. “You can replant the tree, Mr. Sharp,” the saw-man said to my Dad. “But you can’t replant your house.” While it was an easy decision to take, it was emotionally very difficult for my father to watch that tree fall to its fate.

So when Matthew veered away from making us his target, did my dad have any regrets about having the tree chopped down? “Not one bit,” he told my 7 year old son, his grandson. “Imagine what could have happened had Matthew hit us?” Which brings me to the chants, on social media and around town, about wasting time and money. At first, I thought I’d heard wrong. Human beings were actually saying these things? I’m sorry, but did any of you go out and buy boxes and boxes of lettuce? I didn’t think so. The last I checked, plywood, rope, tape, water, box milk, soft drinks, alcohol, tinned food, crackers, flour, rice and all other dried food you stocked up on, will not go to waste! Sure, you would not regularly make such a big spend in one sitting, so cash flow may now be a problem. However, these items can keep and be used in the near future – you have to eat and drink don’t you? As for the new shutters you had to fashion? Well, now you have new shutters and will be prepared for the next time. And, last time I checked (again), having a hurricane actually hit us would have cost us even more money, not to mention the possibility of people’s and animals’ lives being lost. Do I need to make a longer list of all the ‘things’ we could have lost and their accompanying costs? Send me a message if you need the clarification, because I’m ready for you.

By the way, some of these same people complaining that the government sensationalized Matthew, frightening us to spend so much – these people……same ones thanking God for sparing our lives. Oh yes, God spared Jamaica and has mercy on us…..I could go on, but it’s all there on Facebook and Twitter. So was Matthew heading for us and then God picked Matthew up and shifted him? Blew him away? I’m sorry, I thought you said that our Government were wrong telling us that Matthew was headed straight for us last week? Surely, therefore, we should be pissed at God. Matthew was coming for us, after all, and God was the one who decided to spare us and make us waste all the things we bought? Yup, that is ridiculous. Okay, so let’s look at it from another perspective. The Government of Jamaica actually handled the hurricane drama very well, keeping us informed of the path it was taking and the preparations we should be making. Prime Minister Andrew Holness did his duty. We were spared the worst – what a relief. Yet, you still believe that God chose to spare us over Haitians, Cubans, Bahamians, Americans? You people need to read about the scientific laws of physics and weather. It’s all there on the same internet upon which you are ranting – really it is!l