Bad news from the Caymans

[Derek Ortt]

reports are indicating that the damage was much worse than grenada. On grenada, there was 90% damage. On Cayman, the damage is being reported as 100%. That is a cyclone tracy type damage figure

[caneman]

reports are indicating that the damage was much worse than grenada. On grenada, there was 90% damage. On Cayman, the damage is being reported as 100%. That is a cyclone tracy type damage figure

My brother has in-laws that live there. Catastrophic damage.

[Chilly_Water]

I've heard the same. "Total devastation" is what I keep hearing.

[jpigott]

i was looking at a carib. news website yesterday and from what i read the damage was bad but nowhere near 100%. I read where there was quite a few people whose homes sustained little to no damage. On top of that i do not believe there were any fatalities reported on the Caymens. Not to take away from what they went through, but from what i read Grenanda really got slammed. And this makes sense b/c most of the structures on Grenada are not built to the standards of structures on the Caymans

[Scorpion]

. Lets hope it doesnt do this to the Gulf Coast.

[Hurrilurker]

Hmm I saw some pics of what looked like a hotel right on the water that looked like it fared pretty well. The flooding, however, looks terrible, you can barely even call it an island right now.

[dennis1x1]

yeah...ive seen lots of pics too...sounds like the threshold for "damage" was calculated pretty low......either way...it was bad....could have been so much worse....

thank God for another west bobble and no loss of life.

[logybogy]

Things may appear fine from the air (no big roof damage) but when you realize many of the buildings had 6 feet of water inside, the building may be a total loss and have major strutural damage, not to mention mold, etc.

[caneman]

yeah...ive seen lots of pics too...sounds like the threshold for "damage" was calculated pretty low......either way...it was bad....could have been so much worse....

thank God for another west bobble and no loss of life.

Look folks. Do you all understand that the storm surge literally swept the whole island? Do you understand that it took far longer to get information out of there than it did Jamaica? Cars were floating around like toys. It will be a long time before you here of an actual death toll as I'm sure many bodies won't be found. Many of the buildings are built to Hurricane code and many of those did sustain damage. People are walking around the islands just toally lost and in shcok. No water, no power for up to 2 weeks. I'm told the island is unrecognizable.

[soonertwister]

Another scary thing is they are having trouble establishing communications and getting supplies to the island. They have been without water, sewer and power since before Saturday, many many people have no adequate shelter, and looting across the island is reported to be completely out of control. People are panicking and doing insane things because they think the world isn't paying attention to what is going on there.


Ivan didn't even make landfall there. I've gone to some online message boards where people are making jokes about Ivan. You won't be hearing any more jokes in a couple of days.

This is likely to be one of the most devastating storms in history for the United States, and if it hits New Orleans it will be a catastrophe, quite possibly exceeding the damage of Andrew by an order of magnitude, with a greater death toll, possibly by far, than the 1900 inundation hurricane which drowned Galveston. Try having one million plus internal refugees in the United States for over one year.

The best hope now is for Ivan to weaken dramatically before landfall.

[Chilly_Water]

I agree caneman. I've been waiting for VibeFM to come back on the air and monitoring http://stormcarib.com/reports/2004/cayman.shtml for any reports. It doesn't sound good. No trees anywhere. Cars floating away. Waves literally taking out house walls and washng all a houses belongings out to sea. I've read that the complete infrastructure of the island is gone. Whoa.

[Possum Trot]

I received the following email today. The station has a live internet stream.

***

Check out http://www.vibefm.ky for updates on the status of the Cayman Islands after Hurricane Ivan. Vibe FM will resume broadcasting within two days. Forward this to your friends and family.

Sincerely,

Kenny Rankin
Managing Director

[Possum Trot]

I was reading a bit about the island and learned that the island has springs or lakes and that all the water they use comes from rain catchment.

[MBryant]

Not to discount the damage, but does this analysis work like Auto insurance in that a fender bender can be more costly to repair than it's worth and thus TOTALED even though it can still be driven?

That could explain "100%" devastation where visible walls are standing.

A gutted building could have a salvagable foundation and walls, but sustain damage which cost more to replace than to tear it down completely and start all over.

[Chilly_Water]

Possum Trot- Hadn't heard that, but that's scary. I do know that the sewage system is based around septic tanks which caused sewage to mix with strom surge flooding. My friend down there reported a waist-deep mixture of sewage and floods on the bottom floor.

[Doc Seminole]

FROM A CAYMAN website


During this state of emergency in the Cayman Islands, we have temporarily redirected all pages on our site to this central posting.
Note: we are *not* a first-hand news source; this is a summary of other sources.
The Cayman Islands have been struck hard by Hurricane Ivan. Grand Cayman has been hit worst, as the center of the storm passed within 20-30 miles of the south side of the island and the most severe winds appear to have covered the island for hours on end. Because the eye of the storm never actually passed over the island, the winds lasted for hours and hours and hours with no interruption, simply changing direction as the storm passed by to the south heading WNW.

Terms used by those on-island to describe the damage are 'total devastion', 'catastrophic', 'war zone', and relate stories of massive flooding caused by a huge storm surge which flooded much, if not all, of the island.

Most reports are second- and third-hand and there are naturally many rumors. Landline phones are down hard and incoming phone circuits are jammed by people trying to dial in. We urge people to not try to call Cayman unless they have emergencies or on-island families. Even so, it may prove very difficult if not impossible to establish contact and more attempted incoming traffic only makes it worse.

An on-line resource at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caymanfamilies/ has been setup to assist friends and families to re-establish contact. Please use this *only* if you have friends or family on-island.

Communications with Cayman after mid-day Sunday 12 September 2004, have been spotty at best, consisting mostly of occasional scattered out-going cell phone and satellite-based phones. Of course, with phone batteries starting to fail with all the use, even this line is stretched thin.

Power and water were turned off intentionally by the authorities on Saturday evening to minimize damage and danger. CUC is working to restore power to George Town but it may be a long time before the rest of the island has power. We've seen one report that it may take a couple of months to do so, but ... again ...it's early on and there are many stories afoot. However, with reported serious problems at the water company, compounded by major flooding in all areas, water will most likely be a very serious problem for quite some time.

The major media reports are shamefully few and far between. Reports on such outlets as CNN, BBC, Sky News, the Weather Channel seem to be mostly recycled news from before Saturday noon. As usual, it's Ham Radio that has come thru for many and the Hurricane Watch Net is active and can be heard on 'Shortwave' at 14.325 Mhz.

The Cayman Islands Government site at http://www.gov.ky is down as are many if not all island-based internet resources. Most other official CI sites, such as the tourism site at http://www.caymanislands.ky and the Port Authority at http://www.caymanport.com/ are based off-island, are not accessible from on-island; several have not been updated since Friday or early Saturday (=cayman.org= is not based on-island). The Port Authority WebCam and all public/private weather sites are no longer 'live'. Weather observations from Owen Roberts Airport have not resumed since Saturday at 9pm local time.

Weather images from several sources are still current at our sister site at http://www.caymanweather.com and hopefully the airport observations will resume soon. When they do, the automated updates will resume at the above URL.

BTW: we have been saving NOAA and other images for a later gallery of the storm's hour by hour progress, but that will get done after everything else settles down. For the meantime see 'Weather Channel' image below for CPA (closest point of approach) TV capture.

Despite the lack of on-island actual news coverage, their real-time storm tracking was a great help during at least the first half of the storm while we were relaying the info to Cayman by phone. This image was the last one we described before the phone service fell apart.

Reports are that the several feet of flooding on the airport runway are resolving and there are hopes that the damage to the tower can be repaired to enable the start of incoming help and emergency supplies, perhaps sometime Tuesday. There are several private parties lined up with plane-fulls of supplies awaiting that opening. Cayman Airways is reported to also have supplies and materials waiting for that opening. Evryone is pulling together.

Reports are that a Cayman passport will be required to fly into Cayman for some time to come. If you had plans to visit Cayman, call your *air* carrier for the latest info on your flights. Do NOT try to contact on-islands resorts etc until everything is back up, hopefully starting next week. We will post reports from our =cayman.org= sponsors as they have time and ability to reach us. Disaster relief is primary importance here; please do not get in its way.

We will post more news as it is received and verified (to the extent possible). We are looking for additional reliable links to give to people interesting in sending donations and will post those as soon as possible. See RELIEF note below.

This is a disaster. Cayman will need lots of help. However, once all rescue and support is finished, Cayman will rebuild, better than ever. The Cayman people are good, and strong, and they will prevail. More later.

First (aerial, 13 Sept) pictures from GCM (from Yahoo News):
Ritz Carlton

two

Gardens of the Kai

Building with no roof

Pirate ship

six

Marina

eight

nine

Support and other info (preliminary, unverified and unsorted, more later):
If you have loved ones currently on island:
US overseas citizen support: 1-877-422-9626; 1-202-647-6611; 1-202-647-6614
Canadian Foreign Affairs for Canadians abroad in natural disasters 1-800-267-6788, option # 7
Task Force at Jamaican Embassy for Grand Cayman number is 1-876-929-8780
Second number for above task force 1-876-929-5374
Grand Cayman Tourist office in NY... task force 1-877-422-9626
Overworked forum for Cayman help at StormCarib but *please* do not add to load unless you are looking for family or friends on-island (and call the off-island family first if at all possible)
Property damage database (just starting up) at cayman-damage.andy.net
Everyone concerned:
Call CNN to complain about their spotty coverage of the Cayman disaster 1-404-827-2600 (they have new film, showing it occasionally); tell them you care!
Call Sky News to complain about lack of coverage - in UK: 02077053000

Send relief supplies to:
Copied from another support board:

"The islands are in great need of relief supplies, particularly water and non-perishable foods. The supermarkets are being restricted by the British forces, as supplies are low. Please send packages for general relief to the address below. You can also address packages to specific households, providing that you attach a detailed description of the contents & street address/general physical location of the home to which you want the package delievered. The effort is through Thompson Shipping, which as many of you know, is a very reputable shipping company in the Cayman Islands. The first ship of supplies will leave on Friday, and the company expects that shipping services (Tues. & Thurs.) will be back to the regular schedule next week. Items that do not make it there by Friday will be sent on subsequent voyages.

Cayman Islands Relief
Thompson Line
10025 NW 116 WAY
Medley, FL 33178
For more information, phone: (305) 913-8226"

[weatherFrEaK]

As of 12 noon today,

<b><i>Dozens of people remain unaccounted for on Grand Cayman</i></b>
The Cayman Islands remain under a state of emergency and a curfew imposed
H.E. The Governor, Mr. Bruce Dinwiddy remain in charge under the Emergency Powers Law (1997 Revision) and the Emergency Regulations, 2004
Many homes on Grand Cayman are confirmed uninhabitable either due to flooding or roof destruction
Dept. of Tourism offices on Grand Cayman were severely damaged and remain closed
Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are in good shape and have mobilized to help relief efforts for Grand Cayman
Road networks are intact, but some are still obstructed
Cayman Airways, the national airline, has been coordinating emergency
flights into Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac from Houston, Tampa and Miami
CAL flights will bring US citizens back to the United States on these emergency flights
Owen Roberts International Airport is open for restricted flights only
Cayman Brac's Gerrard Smith International Airport is open for restricted
flights only
Visit the http://www.caymanislands.ky has details of what relief supplies are needed and where these can be delivered
Cell phones are working, although the volume of calls makes if difficult to make contact as circuits are almost permanently busy
Land phone lines remain down