OVER THE PAST week, it seemed that it would never come out again, but finally yesterday, the sun got a break through the rain and clouds of 'Wilma', which left Jamaica as a depression and went on to become a record-breaking hurricane.
No matter how bleak things looked since last Friday - and they were very bleak indeed - many of us were at the very least comforted by the thought that not only did we not get the full blast of Wilma, but also that the bad weather was on its way to the west.
That is, of course, very small comfort to those whose homes were flooded, whose communities were cut off and those who had to go into shelters. For while Wilma was a near miss for many, for others it was a hurricane of no mean proportions.
As a country, though, and Portmore in particular, we still need to count our blessings, for they are many.
When one considers that the official names for hurricanes in the 2005 season are now finished and it is back from the top with 'Alpha' if another hurricane develops (and in October it certainly is not "all over"), as well as that 'Dennis' and 'Emily' were other near misses for 2005, it reinforces how active and dangerous this hurricane season has been. No one, therefore, has a reason for not being prepared and it is almost beyond belief that some would stay in flood-prone areas and then demand to be rescued when the inevitable danger arises.
Still, the sun has come out again. Wilma's bad weather will soon be a memory, even as the potholes remain to remind us of not what only was, but what could have been.
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