The Cruelty of Carol

Mauritius Times – 70 Years

My night of terror
By The Island Wife from Hampstead

From Daily Mail, 1 March 1960

What is it like to live through a hurricane? In Mauritius is Mrs. Sonia Manton, a 39-year-old mother of three.
She lived through “Alex,” the hurricane that, a month ago, left 20,000 people homeless.
Mrs. Manton, an Admiralty secretary, described it as “the most frightening experience of my life.” This is her story, as written in a letter to her mother, Mrs. Joan Fawcett, who lives in Hampstead, N.
“We got a preliminary warning, after two earlier ones, while I was at the office and were told to ‘Abandon ship’ at 3.30 pm. I rushed in to get the last odd cyclone stores (paraffin, candles, matches, biscuits, tinned food, tinned milk, etc.) and got home as fast as I could.
“Ray (her husband, an executive in charge of the island’s electricity supply) then told me he would have to go to the other end of the island to his cyclone station. You can imagine how I felt.”

Frail Home

“At five to one, I woke up to a terrible crash of glass. I leaped out of bed, ran to the front of the house, and, to my horror, saw the verandah leaning over and about to collapse. The wind was about 90 mph.
“I leaned on the verandah with all my weight while Jack and Robin (who is 14) ran to the kitchen to find wood to shore it up. If the verandah went, the whole front would cave in.
“We sloshed around in rain, broken glass, rotten wood, and dirt, hammering pieces of wood across the top, nailing a rug over a gap, and shoring up the front with wood.
“It was the most ominous noise I have ever heard—like an express train coming through a tunnel at 120 miles an hour. The inside doors began to pull out of my hands when I tried to hold them shut, and I had to put armchairs and heavy suitcases up against them to hold them at all.”

Trees Fall

“Pieces of the roof kept banging and crashing over our heads. The back verandah started to lift. The garage had collapsed over the car. Big trees were falling in the garden and hit the house next door.
“We made everything as fast as we could and got mopped up a bit while there was a sort of lull, and then we sat down and had a beer and ate peanuts. The children were very good.
“By now, it was 2.30 in the afternoon. I felt I had lived through ten years in the time Ray was away.
“I struggled out through the side glass verandah on the way to the bathroom. The whole side of the house is glass, and the rain was horizontal, like thick, wide clouds hitting the windows. As I opened the door, the roof lifted. I slammed the door and rushed back.”

Homeless roam city without bread

Thousands of hungry, bewildered refugees wandered in the streets of the island’s capital, Port Louis, today.
There is no bread in the city, and lorries trying to bring in food are hampered by roadblocks.
Every report that comes in adds to the story of indescribable chaos and devastation.
Electricity, telephone, and water services are completely disrupted in many places.
Rivers are in flood, and the Governor has ordered mass typhoid immunisations.

Carol came shrieking down from the north on Saturday night, lashing Mauritius with winds of up to 100 mph.
All through Sunday, the heart of the cyclone hovered over the island, giving Mauritians a few hours of comparative calm to try to lash down all movable objects and secure their homes.
On Sunday night, the winds struck again, smashing, levelling, and killing—lifting whole buildings into the air and hurling them hundreds of yards like shuttlecocks.
Three big churches were flattened, and the Roman Catholic bishop’s palace was severely damaged.

Officially, it is described as the worst cyclone since 1892, but back then, it was mainly Port Louis that was hit. Carol left her trail of devastation throughout the entire island.

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From Daily Telegraph, 1 March 1960

Mauritius Ordeal

Mauritius went through the ordeal of a devastating cyclone weeks ago. As if this were not already a cruel enough blow, this small tropical Colony has had to bear the brunt of yet another and far more terrifying one.
The second blow has fallen before the disruption of the first could be repaired. The greater scale of this disaster, falling as it does on weakened resources, sets an altogether new problem in relief.
The loss of life, fortunately, might have been worse, but one-third of the population is homeless; in other words, thousands are desperate.

What most people know about Mauritius is associated with stamp collecting. But that is sufficient to pinpoint it as a dot in the Indian Ocean, isolated from the sort of resources that are quickly brought to bear on a disaster area on the mainland.
There, it is sufficient to declare an emergency and mobilise manpower and supplies from unaffected areas. But Mauritius has no such hinterland, and the nearest British cruiser with provisions and medical supplies has to start from 2,500 miles away in Ceylon.

Mr. Macleod gave the reassuring reply in the Commons yesterday that the RAF was also standing by to take relief supplies to the people of Mauritius. The Red Cross and the Order of St John are already active on the scene, since, as always, voluntary and official aid must play their parts. Help of the most valuable kind can often be provided only outside official channels.

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British Red Cross

The President & Members wish to thank all those who have given so generously in money and kind since the recent cyclone caused so much suffering.
These donations have enabled the Red Cross to relieve much distress. During both Alix and Carol, members of the Red Cross were out and about helping the wounded to reach hospitals and applying First Aid.
Work has been ongoing night and day in the aftermath, and Red Cross Centres have been set up all over the island, providing food and medical aid.

Food and supplies have also been taken to more remote places, and the Red Cross is now assisting the Government with inoculations and maintaining hygiene.
Many people, in addition to giving money to the Governor’s Cyclone Fund, wish to assist the Red Cross further in its work. In addition to money, the immediate needs are:

1. Bundles of used gunnies for bedding
2. Cardboard cartons for transporting supplies

Trained nurses are in great demand, and help from such persons will be much appreciated.
The distribution of supplies is also creating a transport problem, and offers of help from car drivers will be gladly accepted.

An emergency headquarters has been set up at RNVR Centre, Artillery Square, Port Louis, and all offers of help should be made to the President:

Lady Deverell
Red Cross HQ
RNVR Centre, Artillery Square, Port Louis — Telephone 1061
or to
Miss Esclapan
Red Cross Headquarters, Curepipe — Telephone 1304

7th Year – No 289
Friday 11th March, 1960

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 6 December 2024