Although most people know that hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin starts on 1 June, many Cayman residents don’t prepare right away.
It’s true that the peak of hurricane season doesn’t come until the second week of September and that the most dangerous time for the Cayman Islands is the period between August through early November.
However, early season hurricanes can and do develop, and when they do, quite often it’s in the western Caribbean. Already there is an area of broad low pressure south of Grand Cayman that is forecast to consolidate and possibly develop into a tropical cylone late this week or early next week. Although the storm, even if it develops, is unlikely to be very strong, it could still cause havoc for those who are unprepared.
It is therefore important that residents begin taking steps to protect life and property even this early in the hurricane season.
It’s not as if big storms have never threatened the Cayman Islands before during the first two months of hurricane season. One only has to think back to 2005, when major hurricanes Dennis and Emily gave Cayman Islands’ residents a scare on two consecutive weekends in early July. Luckily Dennis went north and Emily went south, but no one can say for sure that an early season storm might not have our name on it this year.
If you haven’t already, we urge residents to take the necessary steps to ensure they’re prepared for a possible hurricane next week, next month in mid-September or even in November. As Cayman Islands National Weather Service Director Fred Sambula likes to say, there’s a preponderance of evidence to indicate that not being prepared for a hurricane has cost lives, but not a shread of evidence to suggest that being over-prepared for hurricane season has ever caused the death of a human being. Put more succinctly – it’s better to be safe than sorry.
For those who are unsure what they should do to prepare for hurricane season, please read the Cayman Free Press Hurricane Supplement titled “Be Prepared”, which will be inserted in the Caymanian Compass on Thursday.
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