EDITORIAL
No Longer Business as Usual
Friday, October 29, 2004
Over the years in any discussion of Cayman’s business future, it has been
generally accepted that our twin-plank economy of tourism and financial
services is inherently fragile because of the external factors, completely
beyond the country’s control, which could cause dramatic change even overnight
in our economy.
Among the varied factors that could possibly impact on this fragility, the
most frequently cited one would likely be the concern about sudden shifts in
the United States’ economic picture from stock market crashes, dollar
devaluation, general economic decline, or from punitive legislation affecting
offshore financial centres, as well as, in recent years, US citizens’
disinclination to travel due to terrorist activities.
Indeed, in very recent times, as our tourism industry can attest, the
latter condition has moved from a likelihood to a reality affecting Cayman
very directly.
We have also been warned by the environmentalists about the damage that
could result to our tourism business if a major oil spill were to come ashore
on Seven Mile Beach. Overnight, it is projected, hotel and condo rooms would
be empty; restaurants would have to close; business would be decimated.
Although this spectre has been raised in the past by officials on our
National Hurricane Committee, it is safe to say that the possibility has not
generally been taken seriously by the public, particularly in light of the
good fortune that has generally come to these islands recently when hurricanes
threatened the region.
Now the consequences to our economy from actions in the US or world economy
have been replaced by the natural disaster, such as Ivan.
Literally overnight, businesses have been crippled, some probably never to
recover, simply from a phenomenon of nature, self-propelled and immutable. In
addition, as the experts now tell us, this is not necessarily a
once-in-a-lifetime strike; we are at the start of a hurricane cycle of more
frequent and more powerful storms, as well as the very new phenomenon of
storms forming in the southern Caribbean and taking a northerly path, such as
Ivan did.
Simply put, we have to rethink the notion of economic disruption, even of a
catastrophic level, to include events that are totally outside business or
financial patterns.
Flowing from that, the experts are also telling us, we must give
consideration to mitigating factors. Some of these are already being proposed.
They include even more rigid attention on an already well-controlled
building code. They include more emphasis on superior roof design and
construction to restrain the damage caused by rain, as in Ivan, resulting from
damaged roof envelopes.
They also include a raised level of engineering in both materials and
construction for our essential structures (hospital; hurricane shelters;
building housing utility services; police station; fire station; and other
considerations) so that they can continue to function during and after the
storm.
It is also being positioned that, given the storm surge experience and
flooding from rain that came with Ivan, consideration should also be given to
the physical elevation of those essential structures to several feet above
ground level for the very purpose of ensuring their integrity under threat
from wind and water.
Furthermore, in a financial centre such as ours, buildings where our
financial service delivery is achieved, should themselves be treated as
essential buildings so that they can continue to do business irrespective of
the weather outside.
The consequences here are no longer of a theoretical nature. While we
should continue to be concerned about external factors that can affect our
standard of living and our way of life, Hurricane Ivan has shown us first-hand
that there is another threat right on our doorstep that can be just as
devastating to life, property and business: While we can’t move out of the
path of the hurricane, we must improve the infrastructure to resist it.
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