Front-page news in the 19 Dec. 1973 edition of the Cayman Compass was of tornados touching down in George Town. The story, ‘Freak Storm Hits Cayman’ told of small tornados with winds between 80 and 100 miles per hour “causing damage including the uprooting and destruction of several trees”. The tornados also caused small boats to run aground. The squall arrived ahead of an “extensive cold front”. The tops of coconut palms were blown off at Royal Palms and breadfruit trees in George Town and South Sound were destroyed.
Also on the front page was the story of a prisoner who escaped from the George Town Prison – twice. Police Commissioner S. A. Grieff ordered “full-scale enquiries” into how labourer Alan Dolan Barnett, who was serving a one-year sentence for breaking into the First National City Bank, managed to make his escapes. For the first incident, Barnett was recaptured within a few hours. The second escape, in which a bar from his cell door was found loose, it took about two days to track him down.
Photos of Santa featured on page 2, with St. Nick making the rounds from Swan Island to East End, to the delight of the lucky children who got to meet him. Accompanying Santa on his travels were a fairy and a clown, with one little girl getting to kiss the jolly fellow.
And, on page 10, a photo story on ‘A Milestone for Cable and Wireless’ showed Julia Archibald making the first call on her new telephone, to her husband who was at A. L. Thompson’s. The phone was the 2,000th installed by C&W since the company installed its first one on 2 Dec. 1966.
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