The Category-3 strength Hurricane Paloma continued to track to the north-east at 10pm Friday, sparing Grand Cayman from hurricane force winds, but putting Little Cayman directly in its sights.
Authorities now expect Little Cayman to be the worst affected of the three Cayman Islands as it passes close to the island from 4am Saturday.
“Hurricane winds are expected to begin in Little Cayman at 4am tomorrow (Saturday, 8 November), with maximum sustained winds forecast at 115 mph, gusting to 144 mph. Winds are expected to drop below tropical storm-force by 7 pm Saturday,” government officials said in a 10.30pm advisory Friday night.
The storm is expected to come within 23 miles of Cayman Brac with winds of 74 mph, gusting to 93 mph. Winds are expected to drop below tropical storm-force by 9 p.m. Saturday, government officials said.
At 10pm Friday, Paloma was located about 25 miles southeast of the eastern end of Grand Cayman and about 65 miles southwest of Little Cayman.
The storm was moving north-northeast at 7mph, with maximum sustained winds near 115mph. The 10.30pm government update said Paloma was beginning to move away from Grand Cayman towards the Sister Islands.
Earlier, Sister Islands District Commissioner Ernie Scott urged residents living on the south coasts of the two islands to think hard about whether they should stay at their houses or get to the island’s hurricane shelters.”People that are living in condos and resorts in the south coast of both islands; they need to think really seriously about whether it is a good idea to stay there,” Mr. Scott said.
Authorities predicted waves of 15 to 25 feet and extensive beach erosion throughout Saturday on both Sister Islands.
Because of Paloma’s shift to the east, hurricane force winds were no longer expected to affect Grand Cayman.
“Maximum sustained winds are expected to be 65 mph, with gusts to 81 mph,” the government advisory said.
Northwest Point, Seven Mile Beach, and the George Town Harbour will be impacted by the winds, the advisory said, leading to waves of between 15 and 25 feet and extensive beach erosion throughout Saturday.
Flooding has been experienced across all of Grand Cayman and rain gauges in the eastern districts have recorded 10 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. More rain is forecast across all three Cayman Islands until Sunday afternoon.
Storm surges of up to seven feet above normal tide levels were expected on Grand Cayman overnight.
Government officials expected widespread flooding in all of Caymans three islands and urged residents staying in those areas to move to the highest point inside the building they occupied.
Police spokesperson Deborah Denis said that, as of 10pm, there had been no reports of death or serious injury across the Cayman Islands due to hurricane Paloma.
No curfew had been ordered, but RCIPS commanders said they would continue to evaluate the situation as the storm progressed. Several areas of Grand Cayman started reporting power outages between 4pm-5pm as tropical storm force winds continued to buffet the island.
Caribbean Utilities Company officials said lights were out in areas of Prospect Road, South Sound and on the islands North Side between Old Man Bay and Rum Point.
Sporadic power outages in the George Town area were also reported starting around 5pm.
CUC cautioned customers that its crews would not be able to venture out in the worsening weather conditions to make repairs and would have to wait until storm-force winds passed by. That wasn’t expected to happen until mid-day Saturday.
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