Hurricane Paloma became a category 4 Friday night. While we were at the office, there were no way of knowing what was going on outside because it was totally dark outside and the windows are so thick we could barely hear the wind.

The all clear was given at 7am Saturday morning.  What a relief! Julie & I made it back home around 9am. On the drive home and upon arrival we were amazed at how little damage there was.

In a nutshell, some uprooted trees, lots of palm leaves, some isolated flooding, some roof shingles. We did not see any major damage at all.  The groceries were open at 10 and even street vendors selling fruit were out in the afternoon.  Its almost as if nothing happened ; I must admin ; I am stunned by this.  We were expecting it to be so bad.  In any case, great news.  The people of Little Cayman & Cayman Brac may not be so lucky though.

After putting our lives back together for most of the morning and afternoon ; taking down some of the shutters, turning the water back on, unboxing the electronics, putting back up the satellite dish, etc, we went for a drive around the eastern end of the island to see how they did.

Near the airport. This was a very typical scene ; about 2-3 inches of water across the street. I must have passed through 10 like these today.


A tree down in a roundabout.  Another typical scene. Minor stuff …

They are building a house next to ours.  The wooden frames used to pour concrete were lying there and I did not like it that they were not secured.  So in the rain on Thursday night, I put about 50 concrete blocks (see pile on the left) onto those wooden frames.  I was afraid the wind would pick them up and toss them onto my house or damage another house. It was no fun, but someone had to do it.

Although the house was fine, the trees in front are pretty much toast. We called the landlady to send over someone with a chainsaw.

Here I am with the massive satellite dish. Of course my Blackberry rang when Julie was taking the picture.

This poor guys yard is completely flooded.

For Julie & I, these pics sum up Paloma for us ; lots of water.  There was so much water where the kept the cows that their legs were completely in the water.  They did not seem annoyed or panicked at all. In the second picture the cows is eating leaves.  When we passed again about 1h later the farmer had already mooooved them.  Alright, that was not even funny! 🙂

The beach cabana on the east end beach took a beating!  That beach is (I believe) the most eastern point of the island, so the closest point to Paloma’s eye.

On the north side, the palms got hammered.  Will grow back though.

I have added a bunch of pictures like these to my Gallery.  Too many to put here.  If you would like to see them, they are at :

http://www.micho.org/gallery