Yvonne Warwick spends Ivan under a mattress in her friend’s bathroom

Yvonne Warwick, her daughter Allana and friends in
Kim Smith’s bathroom during Hurricane Ivan

Friday, October 22, 2004

Yvonne Warwick, a Bermudian that has lived between Cayman and Bermuda for 17 years and recently received Caymanian status describes her experience of Ivan at her friend’s house. Yvonne and her daughter eight year old Allana, spent the passage of Ivan with Kim Smith a friend of long standing who she worked with at Cayman Airways. The family and friends spent most of Ivan’s passage under a mattress in the bathroom.

As the storm approached on Saturday night Yvonne and her storm companions listened to the harrowing reports on the radio:

People on the radio were saying their houses were filling up with water and they were sitting on tables. Roofs were coming off and people were on the phone sitting in one room trying to get help. Reports of people with new-born babies, with water up to their waist and with nowhere to go were all coming over the radio waves.

Eventually the radio station went out at about 2 a.m. on the Sunday morning and then the only thing to listen to was just the wind, a really loud noise and candlelight to see by.

At around 4 a.m. the roof started to come off at my friends house. With the wind howling the rest of the rooms started to cave in with the rain coming in.

My daughter Allana, my friends Bethany Bush, Kim Smith and Kim’s mother, Melba Ebanks, as well as a family friend Wilda Watler, and myself all crammed into the last room in the house – the bathroom.

We all stayed by the shower wedged into a tight space with a mattress over our heads to offer some kind of protection.

I kept thinking if this room goes – where do we go? 

Then at around 7 a.m. the roof started to come in the last room. We stayed in the bathroom with a mattress over our heads while the rain was pouring water into the house. 

My daughter was so strong and I kept assuring her I would not let anything happen to her.

We had tried to call 911 earlier but all the phones were down. Eventually we were finally rescued by two good friends of Kim’s, Suzy and Alfredo Powery who arrived in their truck and took us to their parent’s house. They had struggled to get to us too, as although their home was spared, Alfredo had to move and cut up a huge tree which had fallen in his yard blocking his way to his truck. But we were all so grateful to them for coming to get us. When my friends and I all finally ventured outside we couldn’t believe our eyes.

There were roofs off almost every house we crossed by, telephone poles and trees were all down. We had to take re-routes and shortcuts as the water in some areas was five feet deep with cars completely underwater. Everyone was checking on everyone and seemingly walking round in a daze.

Later that day which was a Sunday when I got to my car I ventured out along the road and felt physically ill by what I saw. It was as if a bomb had been dropped in the middle of the Island. There were police officers and trucks up and down - it was chaos.

People lined up for days in 90-degree heat outside the airport after Ivan passed, including myself and my daughter Allana who is now in Bermuda, probably for the rest of the school year, with her godparents, Tammy and Otis Ingham, attending St. David’s Primary. I however have returned to Grand Cayman to carry on my job with Jacques Scott. As a true ‘West Bayer’ I can’t stay away too long and I hope that Allana will be able to join me when things are a bit more normal.

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