Living in Grand Cayman

2pm, just started raining for a short while.  Dark clouds outside now, so it will probably start to rain again quite soon … and it did ; then stopped again.  A curfew is expected from 6pm till morning. The forecast now has the storm giving Grand Cayman only Tropical storm winds which is great news ; that would mean very little damage.

As you can see, the lines are moving north, more towards the sister Cayman Islands.  Not good for them though 🙁 Gustav is now officially back to Hurricane status as per the US National hurricane center.

This the view outside my office.

New Youtube video I just filmed outside … a few seconds before it started to rain!

I just went for a walk to the ocean front in George Town with my husky Aipa (which means companion in Eskimo language … a great companion she is!)  At first there was a bit of wind and then it suddenly picked up. Downtown is almost completely deserted with only a few people and cars.

I took two videos at the ocean front. Note that in the 1st one I say “9am local time, 11am NY time”.  That is incorrect, its 10 local, 11 NY time.

A few minutes later, I made a second one … the weather was changing!!!

Here is the police station all shuttered up and with the hurricane warning flags

The port is usually full of maritime containers and boats.  Totally empty now.

Here you can see the latest projection.  It is now slightly north, but not much.  Looks like it will pass between Grand Cayman and the sister islands now.

It’s a beautiful morning in Grand Cayman.  There is a very pleasant breeze from east to west and the bird are chirping!  Nothing yet in terms ouf rain or foul weather.

The satellite dish is down and anything of value is at my office which is a shelter building.  I almost feel like I have moved out of the house. Sunday will probably be spent putting my life back together like last year after Dean passed on the 20th of August.

The storm is still scheduled to pass almost directly over Grand Cayman.  The good news is that its still a tropical storm over Jamaica (although almost over ocean now) The forecast calls for a category 1 storm right between Grand Cayman & the sister islands.  Not all that bad, but not all that great.  Category 1 is good considering a few days ago it was said it could be a category 3!  This is probably the price to pay form sun & beaches while people in Canada freeze in February! Some may disagree, but that’s a price I am willing to pay.

Here is a picture of the early moments of the morning here.  Some scattered clouds, nice breeze.  A fabulous morning … which will turn massive foul weather later. Ill be blogging today as long as we have power.

Here is my beloved Husky mix; she it tucked between the wall and a lazyboy chair.  in recent days she has been wondering whats going on, whats all the excitement! She is coming with me to the office along with our Lovebird!

Offices are closed and supermarkets are relatively full of people. Some lineups at the gas stations ; glad I filled up the other day!

One thing I noticed on my drive to the office a few moments ago to bring my supplies is that there seems to have been lots of car accidents today ; I saw at least 3 cars on the side of the road with significant damage. Probably due to people being stressed out with the storm. Unless absolutely necessary, ill be staying in for the rest of the day.  Along for my drive, I took some pictures.

Here is one of Cayman Airways 737-300’s taking off for Miami. The new Cayman airways livery (AKA paint job) looks great in my opinion! They are evacuating lots of people today.

Here is the same roundabout as the previous post a few hours ago ; its now full of cars as I had expected.Notice that some even put car covers on theirs for additional protection.

This was a odd site ; The “mosquito planes”.  These planes are used to spray mosquito stuff to control the populations.  Quick history bit : many years ago, there were so many mosquitoes that Cayman was dubbed “Mosquito island”.  Now it is controlled in many ways, including with these planes that buzz around at very low altitude around sunset most days of the week. Notice that they are tied down with chains.

Finally … I feel sorry for these guys. A local bank made this “roundabout decoration” and has not even finished it.  Those palms were planted about 1 week ago (they are propped up with stilts)  Unfortunately, after a hurricane I would be very surprised if these were still standing. Lets hope I am wrong.

Just before making this post, a neighbor brought me some sea salt (she owns a sea salt business) and two perfectly ripe mangoes!  Talk about a morale booster.  The mangoes were fabulous.  I have great neighbors 🙂  Their website for the Cayman Sea salt is http://www.caymanseasalt.com

Its not looking good.  The latest Government forecasts say Gustav will be a Category 2 by the time it reaches Grand Cayman in the afternoon/evening Friday.  Right now it is beating on Jamaica and then on to us. I will be going to my office tomorrow morning.  I only have the satellite dish left to take down and that’s it.  A friend will pick me up since I am leaving the car in the garage. Some of the forecasts have it going north after Jamaica … again, who knows but by now, no one is taking any chances.

Right now its sunny and a slight wind is blowing east to west … not very surprising! Beautiful day. Just like for dean last year, I find it very eerie to know that its so nice but that a huge storm is just a few hundred miles way.  A very strange feeling.

Most homes now have their shutters up.  Our house has the “traditional” plywood shutters.  Does a great job, but not extremely good looking (although our are painted). I thought I would show some of the other types out there.

These are lexan (sort of plexiglas) which allows the people to see our during a storm but protect great against debris flying around.

This house has the premium “pull down” model.  Probably takes 10 seconds per shutter to close.  From what I am told, they cost a small fortune, but are IMO the best out there. Very slick looking for a shutter … if that’s possible.

Here our local grocery has the industrial type steel shutters.  Nothing is getting through these baby’s!!!

Finally, here are the cars in the roundabout this morning.  When I drove home in the afternoon there where already more cars and by tonight it will probably be completely full.  Notice the slope ; at the center its probably 3-4ft above street level (although not that obvious in the picture)