(From left) Maxine Moore and her mother, Mary McCoy in front of Mrs Moore’s devastated Little Cayman home.

By Tina Trumbach
tina@caymannetnews.com

Little Cayman resident Maxine Moore was “exhausted” last week after weathering Hurricane Paloma and the draining aftermath of recovery.

As the smallest of the three Cayman Islands, Little Cayman had about 200 people resident for Paloma’s landing on 8 November.

According to Mrs Moore, the youngest Little Cayman storm survivor is just six months old and the oldest 91 years old. And everyone in between was facing the same challenges.

“Little Cayman is completely running out of fuel,” she said last Friday, 14 November.

Mrs Moore said a barge bringing supplies made two trips to Little Cayman, but there was no gasoline on board because there was no way to pump the gas from the Brac to the barge without electricity.

By Sunday, 16 November Hazard Management Cayman Islands confirmed that a tanker of fuel had arrived in Little Cayman.

Prior to receiving fuel, Little Cayman could not run its generators to produce electricity.

“We only have two [Cayman Brac] Power & Light guys on Little Cayman,” Mrs Moore said “and they need help.”

She commended linesmen Waid Moore and Philburn “Bujo” Ayton for their hard work. The two men had been working around the clock with some help from volunteers from the Little Cayman Beach Resort.

“But they need more help as over 80 percent of the poles are down from Paloma, on top of losing 40 to 50 percent in Gustav,” she said.

The linesmen were working steadily to get power to the Edward Bodden Airport but, said Mrs Moore, they need more people, trucks and equipment to get the job done.

“By getting power to the airport, it would get electricity to the school, clinic and shelter,” Mrs Moore said.

The island’s shelter is currently housing Little Cayman’s oldest residents - 91-year-old couple Jack and Rilly Ebanks.

Mrs Moore was worried that Little Cayman was being overlooked.

“Everyone is concentrating on the Brac, and seem to be forgetting that Little Cayman got hit too,” she said.

There was enough food on the island for another week, Mrs Moore said, but the supermarket could not order more food without electricity.

Residents hoped to get the school open but also needed electricity for that to happen, she said.

Nevertheless, Mrs Moore said restoration work continued steadily on Little Cayman.

Power had been restored to the Southern Cross Club by last Friday (14 November) and the resort also had running water. Cayman National Bank began operating out of the Southern Cross Club last Thursday, from 10:00 am to noon.

It was “packed with people” on the first day, Mrs Moore said.

A Public Works Department crew and personnel from LIME (formerly Cable & Wireless) were also on island by the end of last week.

People are keeping up high spirits that all will be fine, Mrs Moore said, and hoping that Little Cayman would be up and running before Christmas.

“So we can put up our Christmas lights and have our Christmas programme on December 12 at the Little Cayman Baptist Church,” she said.

The church was extensively damaged by the hurricane.

Some of the tourism properties on Little Cayman also suffered significant damage. The Village Inn lost its entire roof and McCoy’s Lodge, Mrs Moore’s family business, lost the roof over the kitchen.

However, Mrs Moore said the damage was being repaired, the company’s dive boat was undamaged, and the business hoped to be open for the tourist high season in December. The Southern Cross Club was also hoping to open for peak season.

Mrs Moore said representatives from the Department of Tourism (DoT) visited Little Cayman last week to review the island’s tourism properties.

The Ministry of Tourism confirmed that DoT inspectors have been on Little Cayman since last Thursday to assess accommodation properties, beaches, attractions and roads.

Meetings to determine a viable “re-opening day” for Little Cayman Properties were taking place on Monday, 17 November between the Ministry, DoT and the Sister Islands Tourism Association.

As for Mrs Moore, she said her house on Little Cayman came through the storm, but she “lost everything” in Cayman Brac.

Of her Spot Bay, Cayman Brac, house she said, “My front porch and bedroom blew away, the rest of the roof on the house is gone, and I can’t find the bed yet.”