The first hurricane of the internet age pounds Jamaica

When Carlton Benjamin was five years old, Hurricane Gilbert ripped the roof off his family home in Jamaica.

Hurricane Gilbert hit Sept. 12, 1988 when Benjamin’s younger sister was three days old.

“My family and I, we left the house with the baby, tracking to the neighbour’s house for shelter, that storm was definitely one to remember,” said Benjamin in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon.

“I was five years old when I experienced that, I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Benjamin, 42, a member of the board of the Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo Region. He came to this region in 1999.

As Hurricane Melissa pounded the Caribbean island Tuesday, the internet united members of the Benjamin family from Canada, the U.K., Qatar and Jamaica in a group chat. The worst hurric