Our needs for the hurricane season

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Dear Sir:

Scientists say some 30 storms are slated this season. Some say the ‘Gulf Stream’ is slowing down…(due to intensified global warming which is melting glaciers, decreasing water salinity, slowing down evaporation, hence slowing the ‘Gulf Stream’s’ speed).

They say the effect will batter the US with more hurricanes than the Caribbean. But, this is no consolation to us.  Recall Wilma last year, she whipped by us topping the worst recorded.

I hear McKeeva explaining in the L.A. that he wants app. $100,000.00 allocated to a consulting company to tell us what to do for this year’s storms.  But, I hope government takes some of that $100,000, and asks large buildings downtown to put staff, family members and whoever else they can cram into them and pay funds to them to have their offices stocked with food/bedding to ride out these storms.

Castro moved about 700,000 people effortlessly into shelters he’d already stocked with food/water. Follow his lead…why hire consultants?

Some buildings we rode out Ivan in can’t ride out another hurricane. Most are one story. Many have structural cracks. One church we used during Ivan lost its 2nd floor roof. Trapped on the lower floor, the cement ceiling above our heads shook for hours like Uncle Bill’s paint mixer.

Vertical walls danced. We held file cabinets to keep doors from exploding in. Water rose rapidly to our hips, with no higher ground to run to.

We saw something engineers haven’t seen —  the jostling and bouncing of cement as if it were rubber and  Hurricane Andrew showed us cement walls do sheer.

Recall Ivan’s eye didn’t pass over us. Plus, we were hit at low tide. Had it been at high tide, water would have been several feet higher. Recall we’ve hardly any more dense trees, shrubs to impede the explosive effect of tidal water. It’s imperative we seek higher ground in future storms. 

Back in the 80’s, a government representative went around asking what we thought government should do for hurricane preparation.

We suggested a huge tiered conference center be built in the safest part of the Island, a circular structure (better able to withstand hurricane winds) which could double as a hurricane shelter.

It was chuckled at. The idea again came up in the mid-90’s on talk shows when it became increasingly popular for US companies to hold large annual meetings in Caribbean isles.

We felt it would be an attractive draw for both the center and our tourism. Perhaps it’s time we built it. It could save lives.

Maybe Government should look into a venture/liaison with Mr. Linton Tibbetts to found a hotel in Tampa that could be used 6 months of each year for standby in case of Caymanians running from hurricanes. (Call it “Hotel Campa” for Cayman/Tampa.)

This would mean also asking the US government to allow us to come into their country immediately in dire situations. We shouldn’t have to wait 3 days for a waiver! Something has to be done — short of building an ark.

But as one views the Ritz canal, and considers how badly our isle has been cut into, an ark mightn’t be a bad idea.

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