Hurricane Paloma

I heard reports of a tropical storm developing almost as soon as I arrived and the locals do not take those things for granted. They provided constant updates on the storm and convened a hurricane committee on Thursday afternoon to discuss. At that time it was thought to be a catergory 1 hurricane that would hit near Grand Cayman early Saturday morning. No special actions were needed but they would be ready if necessary.

By Friday morning, the situation had changed considerably. Schools, businesses, and our office was closing and everyone was advised to be off the streets by mid morning. I stopped by the grocery store on my way to work and it turned out to be a good decision. I bought a very cheap flashlight, some candles and of course the absolute necessity in a hurricane - beef jerky and beer.

They were advising last minute flights out of Cayman to Miami and anyone needing to change itineraries could do so for nothing. Everyone was very accomodating in those types of things. It was interesting to see the long lines at the grocery stores, gas stations, and ATM's just prior to everything shutting down.

I spent only a short time and work - everyone was sent home and they actually lock down the premises to ensure that in the event of power failure everything is secure. I headed for home around 10 a.m. and was surprised to that I couldn't make an outgoing call on my cell phone. It kept popping up that calls were not available. Figuring it was an "island" thing, I continued home. Once there I turned on the local radio and ran a tub of water - something I had heard about online during the last hurricane. When I heard the radio station advising people to call in on their cell phones, I thought my cell problem was just that - "my cell" problem and not an island thing. I tried to reset the sim card several times and in the end, wound up actually breaking the sim card holder. Around noon the water quit running. Around 1:00 p.m. the power quit working. I did have with me a Sony sports radio that runs on batteries so I was able to listen to reports on the storm, but basically I was in for a night of winds, darkness, and sideways rain.

I did try and take what ice my refrigerator had produced and bag up some of the things to try and keep them cold. And of course, I had to drink some of the beer while it was still cold and eat the ice cream in my freezer before it melted. In fact, I ate quite a lot that day - when there's not much else to do, eating seemed to come to mind quite a bit.

The winds were initially around 40 mph that morning but as the day progressed got steadily more intense. My flashlight was helpful but was the cheapest possible one to buy and so didn't provide a very good means of doing anything productive. I mostly just listened to the radio and watched the storm blow by my open front door. My door is very protected by the garage and an overhang and so luckily I had the door open almost all night without getting too wet. As the hurricane drew closer, the winds topped out I think at around 90 to 100 mph I think but I haven't read news reports yet about it. Just a lot of wind and rain. Grand Cayman was spared the brunt of the storm as it veered at the last minute to the east. Our sister island Cayman Brac got hit much worse. There's a real sense of sorrow for them, but again I haven't heard the full extent of the damage yet.

I woke up to a little sunshine on Saturday and drove right to our offices and luckily found just the guy to replace my cell phone. It was a relief to call Lisa and let her know I was okay. I don't remember ever being in that position where I was basically without communication with anyone for so long. I didn't get power back until around noon Saturday and the water came back on just before that. It was nice to open up the windows and see some sun. There didn't appear to be a lot of damage - just some trees blown down and a lot of water in spots. Nothing too serious that I'm aware of.

We did lose power for a few hours again on Saturday evening, but it's been fine since then. I have since spoken with a few people here at the office who never lost power or water throughout the storm. I was very sarcastic when I thanked them for thinking of me - alone in the dark - but they knew that I was just kidding them.

So that's my first hurricane experience. Now I just need to buy the T-Shirt "I survived Hurricane Paloma".