18 Oct. marks exactly two months since Tropical Storm Grace lashed Grand Cayman with near hurricane strength winds and rains for several hours. Since then, the island has launched mass clean-up efforts to dispose of the jurisdiction’s destroyed vegetation.
According to the Department of Environmental Health, an estimated 427 tons of vegetative debris was brought into the landfill, during a near month long clean-up effort which ran from 30 Aug. to 25 Sept.
And that 427 tons is potentially just the tip of the vegetative iceberg.
“In addition to the initial efforts, five temporary sites were identified for the collection of vegetative debris only and a vegetation collection schedule was arranged to concentrate efforts per districts,” said a DEH spokesperson.
In a statement to the Cayman Compass, the spokesperson acknowledged the exact amount of collected debris is unknown because the power outage during the storm knocked the DEH’s scale offline.
“[427 tons] is only an estimate as our landfill scale required maintenance and repairs and was largely down from the date of TS Grace until September 9 Sept,” the spokesperson said.
The true total is likely to be considerably greater, as the DEH also collected significant amounts of debris at the district sites, which were not weighted.
“[A] significant quantity of vegetative debris was collected at the various temporary sites, but this amount cannot be quantified as we had no means of weighing in at each one of the five locations and the locations could not be staffed 24 hours per day,” said the spokesperson.
A further complication to the overall total was a fire that broke out among processed vegetation at the North Side collection depot on 27 Sept.
“The cause of the fire is unknown,” said the spokesperson. “The main impact was the loss of a significant amount of potential mulch materials local to North Side. This was a disappointment for residents, farmers and to DEH who were looking forward to providing these materials to the North Side community.”
Island wide clean-up efforts are a part of Cayman’s post-storm reaction programme which identifies potential hazards which could pose additional dangers.
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