Hurricane David: the skeleton of a survival tale

On Wednesday 29 August I979 the mountainous island of Dominica (29 miles X I6 miles) was devastated by hurricane David. We, personally, had been seriously warned. My sister telephoned from St Vincent the day before to urge us to leave our little stone house in the valley, surrounded by water, and 'go up higher'. Like us, she feared the probability of our drowning more than injury from the tremendous winds - though she no doubt had better advice than we did on the strength and course of the hurricane. Meteorological radio reports had prepared us for a strike further south - Barbados. Later we learned that the original force of this hurricane was about 300 mph, not the I80 mph stated officially, but that US aviation scientists had 'seeded' it to bring down the speed ... well.