Living in Grand Cayman

With the high winds, there was a large amount of salt spray from the ocean.  We noticed some of the leafs from our trees had fallen.  Well, on the large tree in our backyard, they have almost ALL fallen off, just like in Canada in November.  There are also lots of weeds (thatsd good …) and other plants that have now died.

Before the hurricane

After ; same perspective but with the addition of the Satellite dish.

One of the southern roads on the island, in South Sound was partially washed away.  We could still pass by car, but there was visible damage.

This final picture is unrelated to Dean.  We have noticed that there are many isolated rain showers here.  It is very frequent that it is pouring rain in one area and totally dry just a few hundred meters further.  While we were in Rumn Point this week-end, we were able to get a good picture of this.  Here you can see a shower on Georgetown which is across the North Sound … I would guess 8-9 miles across to the city.

Another of my articles was published earlier this month ; this time it was about Identity theft.  An interesting thing happened with this article … we got a good laugh out of it.

 By accident, my photo was used for someone elses article (see picture below) who is supposedly a financial specialist (He is actually a Dr. in finance who is seen in CNN, Bloomberg TV, etc.)

Notice my new name!  🙂

Here is my real article and what it looked like in the local paper.  Click on the link below if you wish to read my article.

micho_identity_theft.pdf

We especially found it funny since my article is on Identity theft.  In fact, I sort of stole that poor guys identity!

Just one day after Dean, Cayman is virtually back to normal.  Some debris & signs of the storm, but stores are open (even banks) and people are up and about.

A friend of ours gave us some amazing pictures of the flooding in Savannah which were taken immediately as the curfew was lifted.  There are some parts of Savannah where there was at least 3ft of water.

I have posted all the pictures at www.micho.org  Just click on the Hurricane Dean section.  Our pictures are on page 1.  Her pictures start on page 2 as of the 3rd picture on that page.  Look especially at the very LAST picture on page 2.   Look closely.  AMAZING.  If you dont see it, let me know at micho @ micho . org

Julie & I got back to our house in Savannah around 4pm on monday.  Once the curfew was lifted, we found a friend that was driving out to our area.  Our house is fine!  There are some broken branches but nothing else.  In area, Savannah, there is flooding though.  Just 3 streets from us there is about 3ft of water in the streets.  This was expected since it is quite low and prone to storm surge flooding. Today we are putting everything back in its place in the house and bringing things back to normal.

 There seems to be a lot of readers from all over the world who have found my blog via Google.  Thanks again for your comments and messages 🙂

Here are a few Youtube videos we shot once we left the shelter.  There are also pictures below.

Flooding in Savannah (two video’s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVqtMWIUFdE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hUQMTTt3Ag

Strong wind and waves on the south shore of the island

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zo6XNy071I

Waves crashing into the harbour in Georgetown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO50aikoqAM

This is a small tree outside our house.  You can clearly see where the wind came from!

The flooding just down our street.

Me, in the wind near Spotts on the south shore.

Me again in about 1.5 ft of salt water in Savannah … it gets deeper but I did not want to get my boots all wet.  Its not really as bad as it looks.  People dont have basements, so I doubt they got flooded in their homes.

CURFEW LIFTED!!!!

Dean has passed us by and was very kind to us.  We had honestly though the storm would ravage the island but a last minute turn to the south-west saved us. Since we first visited Cayman 6 months after Ivan (2004), we knew what these massive storms can do.  There are reports of some flooding and damage due to storm surge but we talked to our neighbors in Savannah and our area is fine.  The road that goes to Savannah may have some flooding, so we will soon find out.   Now we are waiting for a ride home and will come to pick up our stuff tonight.  Tomorrow we will be putting everything back into place.  Thanks everyone for your support.  I guess we will see the damage tonight and tomorrow ; ill post pictures again here soon.