Living in Grand Cayman

Each time a hurricane, or even a tropical storm/depression comes close to Grand Cayman, all the residents prepare and brace for the worst.   However, those who live in South Sound near the water probably worry a bit more.  You see, the street is no more (my estimation) than 4ft above sea level, so any surge will spill sea water into homes and onto the street. For every storm we have seen since getting here, some homes were damaged and had water come in.

Now, this guy has it all figured out:

This house that is near completion is build about (again my estimate) about 10ft off the ground on concrete stilts. So barring some catastrophic storm,  this house should do just fine.

Another resident on South Church street who figured this out is the owner of the biggest house on Grand Cayman.  Notice the slope on the driveway. This house is perched up quite high compared to street level.

If you want to see some jaw dropping pictures inside and outside of this mansion, take a look here.  The owner, from what I have been told is a 30-something financier. I have also been told that he is a super nice guy and if you met him you would never know that he is uber-wealthy. Before you ask, the number 30M$ was once mentioned to me, but I have no way of knowing if this is true or now.  In any case, who cares, its a amazing house!

See the pictures here:

http://homesoftherich.net/2009/05/cayman-islands-mega-mansion.html

Couple of other random things …

I got this view of a cruise ship while on a dive boat.  Quite an impressive sight up close.

Plus, there were localized rain showers this week and today (of course, also one right after I washed my truck)

Here we see a very heavy rainfall over the ocean after passing George Town and South Sound. For some reason I am always fascinated how it can be raining in one area and bone dry somewhere else. These clouds seem to pass by only a small area and drop their loads.

Alright … i’m tired and going to take a nap like this guy on this sunny saturday afternoon 🙂

(I know long time no post. I travel a lot more now, so I will be posting somewhat less often …)

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Grand Cayman this morning. I only flew in this PM, so did not experience it.   However, people seems to have been quite shaken up.   With the terrible events in Haiti just recently, its not surprising.

From what I have been told and read, this in the only significant damage. Its a 20ft sinkhole n South Sound.

Looks bad, but damage could have been worse.

A few facts …

The Cayman trench is the second deepest place on earth, second to Challenge deep which is somewhere off Thailand.  There is a major fault line that run south of the island.  So its not really surprising that we are seeing seismic activity here. Lets just hope that that was the end of it for a while.  Also, I know that there is a very strict building code here. When you build a house or commercial building, there are inspectors during the whole process and the place needs to be good for hurricanes & quakes. I am sure that was a factor today and why there was not more damage.

Anyway, all is normal!  Diving this week-end 🙂