Before Hurricane Gustav !

Calm before the storm !

Ever since I arrived on Grand Cayman last year people and indeed certain locations constantly give me some valuable insight as to how devastating Hurricane Ivan was to the Cayman Islands. As a newbie, your first impression is that maybe people are exaggerating a bit, but when you see some of the physical evidence in various places like a certain block of flats in West Bay, you begin to realise the enormity of nature’s might. Where I come from there is no real freak weather phenomena apart from a real heavy shower occasionally or a sustained period of drought, so when I had to prepare for the forth coming Hurricane Gustav, it was all a new experience for me.

At work, we have a hurricane committee which has been monitoring Gustav since it begun and today the committee took the all important decision to close the office at 1.30 pm until Monday morning. We all had to pack up our computers and ensure that all files and computer equipment were safely packed in plastic bags. By 12.30 pm most of the staff had headed home to prepare for the hurricane, I have my shutters up, I have all my essential survival items such as 3 torches, a 200 litre drum of fresh water, tinned food, medical supplies, fuel for the generator, hard cash etc.

On my way home, I witnessed people parking their cars on “high” ground just behind the Ritz Carlton Estelle Tibbetts highway, at North Sound Golf course the workers were busy getting hurricane ready and the place was actually closed. Shopping carts at the supermarkets were full to the brim as everyone stocked up and people seemed very irritable at the gas stations not being used to queuing for petrol. Anyway, Gustav is expected to hit us tomorrow afternoon, I will just have to wait and experience my first hurricane, otherwise tonight I am just going to go out and have a nice dinner somewhere and the listen to some live jazz at Cohiba Lounge…