is a collection of letters and essays about the
human experience of hurricanes. Two of the writers, the teacher Donna Tiapula and the poet
John Enright, wrote to friends during the Samoan hurricanes of 1990 and 1991. You will
find excerpts below. Jerome Gold, novelist and anthropologist, provides a moving evocation
of Samoa before the destruction and a later glimpse of the impact these storms made.
Award-winning essayist Marilyn Stablein's thoughts on Galveston's experience of Hurricane
Alicia offer a view of the relationship between the destruction outside ourselves and the
fear of chaos within.
From Donna Tiapula's letter:
"The sea is hard to describe. Usually, it is such a beautiful deep blue and now it is
green and ugly . . . Two small homes have been destroyed, gone totally. The bay is filled
with waves on the reef 20 to 30 feet tall. Not one or two waves, but 100's an hour. . . .
It is really blowing now. . . . Wind is fierce. We cannot see the bay, rain and wind
obstruct the view. . . . I am so scared. My stomach aches. I am angry . . . destruction
everywhere."
From John Enright's letters:
"A bad sign--a flight of frigate birds just arrived in the cove. They are open-ocean
birds, moving ahead of the storm, looking for shelter. . . . The roofing irons above my
dining room are peeled back and flapping. . . . . Two of my porch doors are gone. . . . A
lot of big coconut and breadfruit trees are down in the yard. . . . . It seems the worst
is not past. . . . This is it, full bore from the south. I just watched the porch and roof
of Susan's house disintegrate. . . . We'll have another 10 hours of this at least. . . .
What will the island look like? Will there be anything left?"
