Hurricane Gustav

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So I got back on the island yesterday after my vacation and lo and behold there's a sodding hurricane on it's way!

Aside from 'Storm '87' which was a twinkle in Gustav's (rapidly increasing in size) eye, I haven't actually been privvy to living through a hurricane. Has anybody else been through one?

We're being told the hurricane is expected to hit Cayman on Friday morning or Thursday night, it could be a Category 3 or 4 but is currently over Haiti as a Category 1 but rapidly building.

Hopefully we'll be evacuated to Toronto with the gf's company, but they'll only get us off island if the storm reaches 3 or over. If not we'll have to brave this one out at home. I'm expecting the hurricane shutters to be on the windows of our home when I get off work tonight. At lunch i went to the supermarket and it was already manic with many folks panic buying supplies.

It's a weird situation, I hope it doesn't get any worse. If anybody is interested i'll throw a few updates up on this thread as and when I can.

Slightly uneasy times...

Kind regards,

Mr. V. Anxious
Grand Cayman, BWI.

 

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I've never been in a hurricane, but judging by the shape Florida is in right now and the fact that New Orleans has still to completely recover from Katrina, do whatever you have to do to be somewhere else when Gustav hits.

 

Well it looks like we are about to change our alert status to 'hurricane watch' now which means basically that Cayman can expect a hurricane within the next 36hrs.

GF has been on the phone to me today saying we are being asked if we want to evacuate on Thursday morning. For now (and after much discussion with people who are far more in the know than we are) we are going to stay on the island. I hope we don't live to regret that decision.

Cayman is currently expecting a Category 3 hurricane although we have been told but it could be much worse. There is a surprisingly eerie atmosphere around the island today, everywhere I have been everyone has been talking about Gustav. I guess tomorrow we will know the final score and can make a final decision to evacuate or not.

Tonight I am going shopping for sandbags, never done that before...

 

The Government just announced at 8pm (Cayman time) that both Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands (Cayman Brac and Little Cayman) are on full hurricane watch.

On top of that, reports are now suggesting most trackers are predicting it will move to the Yucutan and not up to Florida. Judging by all the path predictions it's going to head almost directly over us. Although they said that would happen with Dean last year and it didn't come very close at all.

We went shopping tonight for provisions. Couldn't find any sandbags but stocked up on the trusty Parmalat and a few boxes of granola bars!!

It's a really eerie atmosphere here as even though Gustav is some way off entering Cayman waters, the anticipation for the hurricane to arrive is rather overwhelming. Hopefully this will all turn out to be anxiety over nothing and in the morning we can wake up to much better news.

Fingers crossed...

 

I just read on CNN how it hit Haiti and it wasn't pretty. Stay safe.

 

Thanks tripwire. I think we've made a firm decision to stay on the island unless by morning we wake up to hear it's going to be a Category 4 or 5.

I saw earlier a lot of USA airports are in chaos right now due to a computer glitch (BSOD? HAHA!) and we may be rerouted to New York instead of Toronto if we choose to evacuate. Does not bode well.

The NHA has one more advisory to release at 11pm EDT so we'll stay up to read that, call it a night and see what we wake up to tomorrow.

A lot of islanders say that when a hurricane visits Cayman that Jamaica takes a lot of the brunt of a major hurricane and thus weakens it over land before the short trek by water to Cayman. Gustav looks like it will clip a portion of Jamaica and spend more time over water allowing it more time to intensify which is rather worrying.

Again though, this may just be worrying about nothing. We'll see what the morning brings...

 

delorean, find out what kind of storm surges you have to deal with afterwards. Sometimes these can be worse then the hurricane. Then depending on which way the hurricane comes in on you will depended if you have to deal with tornados. How far are you from the beach? A cat 2 hurrican is not something to play around with if your on the ocean let alone a cat 3. Are you on high ground? I know nothing about where you live but I did live in FL if they think it is going to hit a cat 3 take your wife and get out if you have a chance. If I remember right I belive they do a mandatory evac on the fl keys if it reaches a cat 3 if your island is like the fl keys I urge you not to take the chance if you have a way out. I am not trying to freak you out I just want you to realize a cat 3 is a big hurricane and I would like to see you and yours stay safe.

 

Gustav and come more hurricanes!

http://www.worldwidemeteo.com

 

Thanks for the sound info Mitz.

Well so far this morning the only thing that has changed is the downgrade from a hurricane to a tropical storm as it spent some time over Haiti. All the weather networks are now saying though it will regain strength to hurricane status over the next 24hrs.

The really bad news is that the path projection has now changed and instead of curling up over Cuba towards Florida we are now looking for it to move to the Gulf. Even worse the projected path shows a light buffing of southern Cuba and eastern Jamaica but from there it will avoid both countries and pass directly between Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands!

That is an incredibly scary proposition and thus this morning we have told our respective employers we will likely be leaving the island should they put the evacuation procedure in to action. This we are still waiting for news on. The good news is we have our car secured in a multi-storey car park which is built to stand strong against a Category 7 hurricane (which we all know does not exist). We are expected to recieve a Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane according to current forecasts.

As for the islands themselves, Grand Cayman is notriously flat with next to zero high ground. We only have a population of around 50,000 here and most parts of the island are actually below sea level. We do live next to the beach and even in basic storms we get inland flooding. It's scary to think what this hurricane may bring to Grand Cayman and the rest of the Caribbean and USA.

Eerie times...

 

Have you and your wife in my prayers hun. Let us know as soon as you can that you are safe.

 

Thanks Mitz! (although she's my girlfriend not my wife....yet hehehe )

This will probably be my last 'update' of sorts for some time as with the hurricane (or at this stage tropical storm) fast approaching, the island has gone berzerk with panic. Everyone is talking about it and preparing.

Yesterday I went looking for a lantern and went all over the island for one. I eventually found 1 of 3 left on the shelf in one store. It's pretty great, it runs off of AA's or you can crank it up to charge it by hand! It also has a built in cell phone charger, AC/DC ports, power adapter, car charger and an AM/FM radio. HURRAH!

Lights up better than a roman candle!!

We've officially evacuated our home now and are staying at a shelter tonight after work. Let's hope our home doesn't get pounded too hard. Oh and as predicted by my neighbour on Tuesday night, I got home yesterday to find our windows all shuttered up. I spent most of last night running duct tape over the back door which we found always leaks water even in light rain. Everything is up on tables or counters now and all in plastic bags.

IT wise, today will be crazy busy (am writing this while I have 5 minutes of downtime) as a lot of our clients are shutting down at noon and we need to take care of each one before they close. Lots going on today, very busy, very manic as we prepare for the big push tomorrow.

I'll see if I can update a bit later today or tomorrow or something; but if not, see you on the other side.

Bye for now!

 

Good luck, mate. Stay safe.

 

Well we made it through evacuation night number 1....err because nothing has happened...yet!

It's 6:20am, eerily breezy and I am being picked up by my boss at 7am to go to work for a few hours. Some of our clients wanted to open for business today but they won't be getting that chance as the RCIP is likely to place a curfew on the island for 12 noon today. I've been informed we're shutting remain folks down, waterproofing our office and heading home before curfew.

Currently Gustav is still a tropical storm which is good news. The problem is, every forecast says the storm is now due for rapid intensification and also still on course for a direct hit with Grand Cayman as it leaves Jamaica this morning. A category 1, 2 or 3 hurricane is expected which, with a direct hit on the island, is likely to ruin this place (not to Category 4 or 5 levels) because it is so low-lying.

I don't think i'll get another chance to put an entry to this thread until after the storm so I will bid you all adieu for now. The car's safe, we appear to be staying in a safe location and all seems well. Fingers crossed, right now it's just a waiting game...

 

Better than fingers crossed...you and everyone at risk are in my prayers.

 

Mine are too Big D. I hope you guys are ok!

 

It's getting stronger now a Category 4 storm.

 

ahhh jeesh, I hope it has already passed over them before it hit that!

 

N.O. being told to evacuate - apparently going to pound the gulf as a cat 4, maybe even a cat 5. Hope Delorean made it through alright - apparently it didn't get above a cat 2 when it hit the Caymans so he should be OK.

 

...and this time, they're being warned that there won't be much/any assistance for doofuses (doofi?) who choose to stay behind. Good for them! "Here's your bus. Get on it, or deal with the consequences."

I tell ya... abdication of personal responsibility and accountability really irks me.