CeilingCat
Posts: 2363
Joined: Dec. 2007
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Speaking of Montserrat, check out the Wikipedia article on that island. That poor chunk of land gets my vote for the most thoroughly screwed over piece of real estate in the Caribbean.
In 1989 it got hit by Hurricane Hugo. Hugo's 140 MPH winds damaged over 90% of the buildings on the island and wiped out the tourist industry, which was virtually the islands only source of income.
Then, in 1995, just as it had almost recovered from Hugo, the Soufriere Hills volcano, which had been dormant for centuries, erupted. The eruption buried Plymouth, the capital, in 12 meters (39 feet!) of mud, destroyed the airport and rendered the entire southern half of the island uninhabitable. Over half the population fled the island.
The volcano continues to erupt intermittantly, killing 19 people in 1997 "when they were overtaken by a pyroclastic flow". (UGH!)
And then to complete the destruction, kairosfocus moved to the island.
Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, after all this devastation, "The island's operating budget is largely supplied by the British government and administered through the Department for International Development (DFID) amounting to approximately £25 million per year."
I believe this would make KF some sort of blood-sucking government leech, possibly with tenure, in O'Leary-speak.
Montserrat - The Emerald Isle and also the most fucked-over island in the Caribbean.
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