Facing Dennis

Foster’s Food Fair at the Airport on Grand Cayman
witnessed a brisk trade.

Loretta Grizzel, Clerical Officer for the Department of
Children and Family Services on Cayman Brac, buys
food from Billy’s Supermarket for some of their
clients.

The Cayman Net News Hurricane Team meets to
discuss keeping the news flowing.

Friday,  July 8, 2005

By 11: 00 pm on Wednesday night 6 July Hurricane Dennis had slowed down slightly on its path towards the Cayman Islands, but was becoming stronger as sustained winds neared 80 mph, with higher gusts, reaching category one hurricane status.

Heavy rainfall was predicted for all three islands and residents were urged to prepare for flooding with an anticipated 8 inches or more of rain expected to fall in the 24-hour period starting around 7 am on Thursday.

The storm was projected to travel just north of the Cayman Islands, and most likely to affect Cayman Brac most, with the strongest winds reaching there early Friday morning around 3:00 am.

The Hurricane Watch was switched to a Hurricane Warning at 10:00 pm on Wednesday.

As people made their preparations throughout the day, the country’s commercial organizations began to activate hurricane preparedness programmes, Cable & Wireless went into full hurricane readiness state according to the Crisis Management Team (CMT) that saw the company through Hurricane Ivan last year.

“The team met this morning and is confident that Cable & Wireless is ‘stronger today than one year ago,” said CMT Chairman, Albert Anderson. Chief Operating Officer Ian Tibbetts backed up Mr Anderson.

“Our Mobile and our Fixed line Networks are more resilient. We have greater capacity and are ready to deploy our Cells on Wheels (Cow’s) to any hard hit area. In terms of our staff, they are already on high alert and taking all necessary steps to ensure that our customers remain connected to our service.”

The company noted too that should the weather deteriorate, it would make arrangements to reconnect all disconnected telephone lines as a service to its valued customers.

Digicel also assured customers and staff that it had put its hurricane contingency plan into high gear. It said with the acquisition of new cell sites, the raising of all low-lying cell sites and additional capacity the network has never been stronger and it had provided generators for placement at all major sites, each with additional fuel tanks for backup.

Throughout the financial sector companies were ensuring their newly designed plans in the wake of Ivan were operating as they should be and made plans to protect staff, resources and information.

After its experience during Hurricane Ivan, Cayman Net News also went into meetings to initiate its own hurricane preparedness plans, to ensure that whatever happens the company could utilise its website, complete with streaming video on CiNTV, in conjunction with Cable & Wireless and Jeff Rivers of XStream Tecnologies who make it all possible, to keep users updated.

Desmond Seales, Publisher and Editor in Chief of Cayman Net News, said: ”It is extremely important to us that we keep the information flowing, not just for the people of the Cayman Islands but for the rest of the world too. We did it before, during and immediately after Ivan and we will do it again during Dennis.”

The supermarkets were doing very brisk trade throughout Wednesday, especially when it came to water and batteries, and it was evident that the people of Grand Cayman would not be found wanting this time.

After considering the latest Miami National Hurricane Center advisory the Cayman Islands’ NHC announced that all schools would be closed on Thursday, in keeping with the C.I. National Hurricane Plan, and it advised businesses in Cayman Brac that employees should be given the opportunity to attend to personal preparations from 10:00 am Thursday, and businesses in Grand Cayman should do likewise from 1:00 pm. It was announced that shelters would open as needed and arrangements were made for flights to accommodate persons on Little Cayman who wanted to leave. However, the manager of the Little Cayman Beach Resort, Samantha Baker, said that four out of the 25 guests staying wanted to go home, but could not get a connecting flight out of Grand Cayman.

“They mostly wanted to go so that their relatives didn’t worry about them and to be at their own homes if the storm moved on to Florida, but they were not too concerned about staying,” she said.

All the guests were going to stay at the hotel, and if winds were 45 to 55 mph as expected, she did not foresee too many problems.

Maxine McCoy Moore, Office Manager at McCoy’s Lodge, also said that her guests were able to leave Little Cayman but unable to get confirmed flights from Grand Cayman, so they all decided to remain where they were. She said that most of the guests at all the resorts on the Island were staying for the same reason, and that it did not appear to make a difference whether they were booked on a US carrier or Cayman Airways.

Ms McCoy Moore believed that even if Dennis became a Category 2, “we can handle it here.” However she said that because the storm was approaching from the north, she and her family and guests were going to the Little Cayman Hurricane Shelter.

Over on the Brac, supermarkets were busy all day, and Ms Heddie Grant, owner of the Texaco Gas Station in the West End, said that there had been a constant flow of business.

At Billy’s Supermarket in Cotton Tree Bay, Assistant Manager Teresa Tibbetts was frustrated that the store had at least three containers of dry food plus one of perishables sitting on the dock in Grand Cayman.

The food for the Brac arrives on Grand Cayman on Sunday and gets to the Brac Thursday, she explained. She said that when a storm is coming this way, Thompson Shipping should make an effort to get the shipments over to the Sister Islands.

She pointed out that a barge came over to load aggregate from Scotts Development on Monday, so did not see why they could not have sent a barge to bring the groceries.

“They did the same thing to us last year before Ivan. They should watch the weather and send the barge early. They are the only shipping service to the Brac and we have got to be grateful for that, but we are at their beck and call,” she said, adding that storeowners pay almost $3,000 to ship each container.

Ms Sadie Dilbert is planning to weather the storm at the Aston Rutty Civic Centre, where she spent Hurricane Ivan, and spent Wednesday getting ready in case she needed to go to the shelter again. The few days she spent there last September were not much fun, she recalled.

“There were about 500 people. We carried our own food and the firemen provided cots for us to sleep on. We ate corned beef on Saturday, corned beef on Sunday and corned beef on Monday.

“The electricity went off and a lot of people became very frustrated and disoriented due to the heat. But we had to make ourselves satisfied because it is a hurricane and there is nothing you can do. I don’t know what it will be like this year,” she added.

District Commissioner Kenny Ryan, who is Chairman of the Sister Islands Hurricane Committee, said that all Government buildings were shuttered up on Wednesday, and that shelters were prepared with essential supplies.

He said that a decision would be made early Thursday about when and if the hurricane shelters would open on the Sister Islands. Announcements would be made by radio and other means, and he expected the shelters to be opened mid-afternoon Thursday, he said.

NHC Chairman Donovan Ebanks advised the public to closely monitor the progress of this storm and to begin personal and business preparations if they hadn’t done so. While Hurricane Dennis has held closely to all projections and is still not expected to pass directly over the Cayman Islands, any shift in the storm’s course or size could place Cayman in danger.

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