The life and times of Hurricane Ivan

Fred Sambula

by Wendy Ledger

Friday, October 1, 2004

No one who was here on Grand Cayman on 11 September 2004 and who remained in the weeks that followed will ever forget the destruction that Hurricane Ivan wreaked across the island. Ivan will go down in history not only for the devastation it caused here, as well as in Grenada, Jamaica, Cuba and the US, but also for its incredible magnitude and recording breaking data.

Ivan began life as a tropical cyclone, 555 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands on 2 September. It was the fifth system in the North Atlantic hurricane season of 2004.

This particular depression strengthened gradually to tropical storm status about 610 miles southwest of Cape Verde. As it moved west-northwesterly at around 16 mph, it was named Ivan on 3 September.

Early on 5 September, Tropical Storm Ivan's winds strengthened to hurricane status and by 5pm EDT, Ivan had rapidly strengthened to a strong category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, with winds of 125 mph.

The National Weather Service, US noted such rapid strengthening was unprecedented at such low latitudes in the Atlantic basin. Ivan travelled west and directly hit Grenada, mid-day 7 September where it caused immense devastation and loss of life.

As Ivan passed just north of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba on 9 September, sustained wind speed increased to 160mph, classifying Ivan as a category 5 hurricane. Following this milestone, Ivan fluctuated between 4 and 5 as it carried on its path of destruction across the Caribbean Sea.

Ivan continued west-northwest, heading straight for Jamaica and began a westward jog which kept the eye and the strongest winds to the south and west. After clearing Jamaica, it resumed its west northwest track, at category 5 intensity with sustained wind speeds of 165 mph. With minimum recorded central pressure at 910 millibars, this made Ivan the sixth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.

On 11 September, with Ivan still travelling west northwest the Cayman Islands were under a hurricane warning, as tropical storm force winds began affecting the Sister Islands. At 11:00am on the 11 September, the centre of Ivan was 200 miles southeast of Grand Cayman but by 4pm on that Saturday, after another shift in track, tropical storm force winds began affecting Grand Cayman as Ivan headed closer and closer. 

By 10pm on Saturday evening, Ivan’s centre was 113 miles southeast of Grand Cayman but winds of around 100 mph were already being recorded on the Island and by 2am on Sunday 12 September with the centre of Ivan still some 80 miles offshore, hurricane force winds were battering Grand Cayman. By around 5am a storm surge from North sound was peaking around 10 feet.

The closest point of approach came at around 10.00am on Sunday morning when the eye-wall of Ivan passed 21 miles southwest of Grand Cayman off the coast of George Town. Hurricane force five winds were in full swing with sustained winds of 150 mph battering the Island and gusts possibly in excess of 220mph.

Speaking about the storm’s impact Fred Sambula, Head of Meteorological Services said: “We cannot be certain of the exact strength of the gusts, but it is certainly within the realms of scientific possibility that gusts could have reached as much as 225 mph.”

As the centre of circulation moved westwards, the winds shifted to the southeast and brought a new storm surge from South Sound with a peak of around ten feet, which lasted for a couple of hours and carried waves as high as 30 feet. By lunchtime on Sunday Ivan was still battering Grand Cayman with hurricane force winds and huge breaking waves. 

Ivan recorded some astonishing statistics. It was around 400 miles across and moved at around only 8mph. It brought more than twelve inches of rain between Saturday night and Monday morning and the storm surge estimated at around 10 feet brought wave heights of over 30ft.

The island suffered sustained winds of up to 150 mph with gusts of 225mph and had a total of more than seven hours of winds in excess of 100mph. Hurricane force winds started at around 3am on the Sunday and continued for fifteen hours. In total Grand Cayman suffered some 54 hours of strong winds.

“The stormed moved so slowly,” added Mr Sambula, “that the island was battered for extremely long periods. Even though the closest point was George Town the slow movement of the storm, meant winds were bashing the Island from the south for a long time, explaining the excessive damage along the more exposed south coast,” he said.

It was 7am on Monday morning before Hurricane Ivan finally passed and headed towards the western tip of Cuba. Ivan then passed through the Yucatan Channel and over the Gulf of Mexico, where it dropped back to a category 4 and travelled north to the coast of the United States. Ivan made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama and continued to wreak havoc, as it moved north and then east, bringing heavy rainfall to large areas of the south-eastern United States. Debate still rages as to whether or not Ivan re-looped over the US returning to the gulf as the revived Ivan’ which made landfall again in Louisiana – either way the tropical storm weakened quickly and the life of Ivan was finally over.

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