The Effects of Hurricane Gilbert During the year of 1988, several events changed the lives of hundreds of people. The summer Olympics, a presidential election, and Hurricane Gilbert which tore through Jamaica, part of Mexico and the United States. Hurricane Gilbert occurred between September 10th and the 17th. Hurricane Gilbert was one of the most wretched storms of the century. What had started out as a tropical storm, grew into a terrible nightmare for those that lived in Jamaica. "The onset of the storm was first seen by satellite on September 3rd 1988. This was categorized as a tropical storm; a wrinkle in the uniformly eastern flow" (Sheets 1). Gilbe