Cayman could be facing a “new normal” of more frequent powerful storms with record-breaking Beryl expected to be the first of up to seven major hurricanes in the region this season, the islands leaders have warned.
The storm, which was the earliest category 5 storm on record in the Atlantic, has been highlighted as a portent of a frightening new reality.
And with forecasters projecting an especially active storm season this year, Cayman Islands residents are being warned to stay on their guard.
“I think this is a new normal,” Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly told the media Friday, as government leaders debriefed following Beryl, which passed 44 miles south of Grand Cayman as a category 3 hurricane early Thursday.
Along with Governor Jane Owen, she toured some of the worst-impacted areas Thursday, including Windsor Village, where ocean-front homes sustained serious wave impacts.
As she thanked God for sparing the islands the worst impacts of the deadly storm, which killed 10 people as it churned through the Caribbean, the Premier acknowledged the science that points to an increasing threat from extreme weather.
“The climate crisis is the real thing,” she said during Friday’s press conference.
Her comments were echoed by the UK’s new foreign secretary David Lammy, who was on a call to the premier and Governor Jane Owen hours after taking office on Friday.
Climate crisis
Speaking as a British Royal Navy Ship HMS Trent arrived in Grand Cayman, Lammy pledged that the new Labour government stood ready to support Cayman and the region.
“Such a large storm forming so early in the hurricane season brings home the reality of the climate crisis,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
The UK is helping our friends in the Caribbean as they deal with the devastating effects of Hurricane Beryl by releasing funds to help the region recover.
I have just been speaking with the Cayman Premier and Governor to outline our commitment to the Overseas Territories. pic.twitter.com/pgovrNwiWd
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 5, 2024
“The Caribbean is on the front line and that’s why this government will renew action at home and engagement abroad on tackling the climate crisis so that together the world can address this emergency,” Lammy said.
The United Nations has previously forecast that climate change is likely to produce a greater frequency of more powerful storms and greater rainfall events.
Several Cayman officials warned Friday that the island could not afford to become complacent despite its near textbook response to the deadly threat posed by Beryl, an extraordinarily early season storm.
Cayman suffered relatively little damage in the hurricane, which ultimately served as a stress test for the islands’ resilience.
With at least four months to go in hurricane season, the premier urged people to not let their guard drop and maintain a state of readiness.
Even as she spoke, the Cayman Islands National Weather Service was preparing an alert, issued later in the day about a tropical wave, expected to bring high winds and rainfall over the weekend into Monday.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan added that Hurricane Beryl was expected to be “just the first major storm” of the season and that up to six more major hurricanes could follow in its wake. International forecasters have predicted an ‘extremely active’ storm season with as many as 23 named storms anticipated.
“We must not let our guard down,” Bryan said, urging people to hold on to plywood, sandbags and hurricane supplies and stay ready.
Bryan hailed Cayman Airways, which helped put on 24 evacuation flights at short notice to evacuate almost 4,000 people as Beryl approached.
While he acknowledged there could be tweaks to the plan, particularly for the smooth evacuation of tourists, he said Cayman Airways and the Cayman Islands Airports Authority, among many others, had performed heroically in the circumstances.
He urged people to “stay in a state of readiness” and replicate the community spirit that had been evident in the past few days throughout what could be a long and arduous hurricane season.
“It is with this unity that we will see through any further challenges ahead,” he said.
Governor Jane Owen, in her first hurricane since taking the job, joked, “It was a relief to go back to Government House last night and to find it still standing.”
She confirmed that the HMS Trent, which had been on standby to provide disaster relief, was docked in Cayman over the weekend. While humanitarian aid wasn’t needed, the opportunity served as an exercise to fine tune cooperation for the future.
Hazard Management Director Dani Coleman acknowledged concerns about the speed at which the ‘stay in place’ order came down on Wednesday evening.
But she said the order was advisory and people had plenty of time to prepare for this storm – warning that advancing hurricanes presented a dynamic threat and people should be ready to heed similar warnings at even shorter notice in the future.
“We did have 72 hours or more this time,” she said, referring to the early warnings that the storm was tracking towards Cayman.
“The later season storms are going to be much quicker, so these kind of orders are going to happen even sooner than they did this week.
“Please be prepared for anything this season.”
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