Profile: Peta Wiggins, Hurricane Dean survivor

When Hurricane Dean brushed Jamaica last month, Peta Wiggins was there. The Georgia State University graduate student was visiting her family home in Mandeville, west of Kingston, for the first time in two years. Wiggins’ grandmother died the day after the storm.

“Yes, we stayed at our house during the storm. You just started hearing noises on the roof, and our avocado tree was rooted up and it fell on top of the roof. That was exciting.”

“There’s no TV or anything during a storm. So, we had a pack of cards and we had dominoes, with, like, a kerosene lamp. And we just talked. My niece taught me how to hula hoop.”

As Wiggins took pictures of the storm, her mother said, “What are you doing? You aren’t a tourist.”

On her grandmother’s death: “I think she had heart failure. My mom had to actually put her mother in the car when she was dead, and take her to the hospital.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)