No Truth to Hurricane’s high death toll rumours

Hon. Gilbert McLean

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

After a number of persistent rumours concerning a higher death toll from Hurricane Ivan than had officially been reported, an investigation by Cayman Net News has been unable to confirm such rumours, nor find any evidence at all of a large numbers of bodies allegedly killed during the hurricane.

The Hon. Gilbert McLean, JP Minister of Health Services, Agriculture, Aviation and Works, stated on Friday 22 October: “There is a very low body count. As far as I am aware there were only two deaths from hurricane Ivan. It is absolutely false and mischievous for any claims from any quarter whatsoever that lots of people died in this hurricane.”

Regarding reports of 70 bodies at the morgue, Mr McLean said: “This was not possible, as the morgue can only hold up to six bodies.”

Reading from a report that was current on 4 October, Mr McLean Continued: “Since 12 September, there have been 14 reported deaths in the Cayman Islands. None of these deaths were related to injuries sustained by Hurricane Ivan.”

Mr Mclean emphasized how ridiculous the claim was especially when one considers the size of the Island and the morgue. He then added: “What possible reason could the government have for covering up large numbers of deaths and how in heaven’s name would we be able to do it?” 

Mr Roger McKinney, General Manager of the Bodden Funeral Home, said that he too had heard rumours. “We went looking but nothing was found,” he said. He also stated that there had been a few deaths since the hurricane, mainly of elderly people, but that none of these were related to the hurricane.

The Director of Public Health Dr Kiran Kumar from the Health Services Authority re-iterated and confirmed a previous statement, by saying that only two deaths could be attributed to Hurricane Ivan.

The persistent rumours appear to stem from the fact that many bodies were disinterred from some of the cemeteries around Grand Cayman and residents certainly did see the disturbing sight of these bodies torn from their resting place by the hurricane. 

Although the Public Works department very quickly moved to re-bury the bodies, it seems this was not enough to prevent the rumour mill grinding on.

Back...