Living in Grand Cayman

What a difference 8h can make!  Forecasts now predict that the storm will pass under (south) of Jamaica and then make a “bee line” to Grand Cayman.

This storm is officially, in my book, “The rollercoaster” : faster, slower, stalled, north, south, Cayman, No-Cayman … it just keeps changing and keeps us all guessing and messing with the minds of all the meteorologists out there.

Here you can see that compared to my previous updates, it has turned south to pass under Jamaica.  After that, who knows!

The flying turtles (AKA Cayman Airways) have started their hurricane schedule.  While driving to work (I drive by the airport) I saw at 6:30am their last old Boeing 737-200 roar to go pick up people in Cayman Brac.  Usually the first flight to leave the airport is around 7:15 or so. Also, lots more people on the road at such an early time.  Probably people that want to leave work early or after lunch to finish preparing for Gustav.

A few cars has also started showing up in some of the roundabouts. The roundabout centers are elevated, so are a good place to put a car since they will be less likely to get flooded than at street level.  The best spots go first, so people are putting the second car (or the likes) there a day or to early.  During Ivan in 2004, hundreds of people lost their cars, so people take this very seriously.

Quick night update.

Good and bad news …

The good : The storm seems to have considerably slowed down and is now a Tropical storm and will probably only be a category 1 hurricane by the time it gets to Cayman.  A category 1 would not be all that bad (not that its good either …) and should not cause too much damage considering how well prepared people are.

The bad: The storm is steering a more southern route now, aiming a lot closer to Grand Cayman.  It was supposed to pass way north of Jamaica also. Now the Jamaicans will feel Gustav’s wrath and we may also get to see it much more close & personal.

More news in the morning!  Thanks so much to everyone who posted comments or sent me an email.  Your words of encouragement are much appreciated! 🙂

Good evening,

Its nice and sunny here in Grand Cayman.  Very humid though so the a/c is on so that everyone (myself and the pets) is comfortable. Not surprising to feel so much humidity with all the tropical systems floating around the Caribbean. The island is quite calm ; most people seem to have done their shopping yesterday and put their shutters up in the last 24h.  Most people are more than ready for this.

This storm is painfully slow … lets get this over with already!  It has barely left Haiti after spending all day there. The “spaghetti chart” is all over the place (see below) so no one really knows where this Gustav storm will really go! One of the forecasts have it directly on Grand Cayman (purple) , one has it on the sister islands (red), one on Jamaica (white) and some on Cuba (the others).  Very reliable!  🙂

The National Hurricane Center in Miami (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov) has it passing about 100 miles from us.  From my experience, their forecasts are quite good. Since I have gotten quite a few emails and messages today from readers (thanks!) I though I would also mention Weather Underground & StormCarib. Wunderground (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/?index_region=at) has great data and StormCarib (http://www.stormcarib.com) has local correspondents (including myself) who post comments about whats going on locally. Great sites to bookmark.

In any case, the shutters are fully up and ready to face whatever the storm tosses at us.

For my Canadian readers (and those in North-east USA) and to close out this post; did you know that there was a hurricane in the 1930’s that went all the way to Montreal via New-England?  I only learned about this today ; Interesting don’t you think? I never knew that they could go so much to the north.

Here is the reference and write-up about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Hurricane_of_1938

This morning when looking at the weather sites, I had to refresh my screen a few times.  The storm is still over/near Haiti and has barely moved.  It has almost stalled!  That is good & bad news at the same time. The good : The trajectory may change from the forecasts.  The bad : It can take its time to gain strength again after dropping many inches of rain on Haiti.

Notice that the storm is only slightly more to the west (left) compared to my post yesterday afternoon! This storm is very slooooow! Haiti sure is getting lots of rain out of this one.

Our local airline, Cayman Airways, has canceled all non-Miami/Ft. Lauderdale flights.  They have also added a whole bunch of flights to Miami to evacuate all those that wish to leave.  Basically, the three Boeing 737’s will be flying back & fourth to Miami all day today and tomorrow.  After the last flight out, they will park the planes somewhere safe, most probably at the Miami airport and return once the storm has passed.  This morning I received an email from a tourist currently staying in cayman and in a bit of a panic. (if you are reading this, I hope my email helped!)  I suggested to the person (and I recommend it to any tourists still in Cayman) to seriously consider this option and leave before the storm.

A quick update …

As of 8pm EST, the government of the Cayman Islands has issued a hurricane watch!  That means that hurricane conditions are possible within the next 36h.

Next step is a hurricane warning ; thats when it really gets serious.  If Gustav continues its current path, that would probably be tomorrow evening.

Lets hope things change!