Pregnant women in Cayman had an extra layer of stress to deal with as Ivan barrelled its way towards Cayman.
Some made the decision to leave but many stayed, either by choice or due to the fact that they were too far into their pregnancy to fly.
Here are the stories of four women, pregnant during Ivan, whose children were born in the days and months following one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the Cayman Islands.
Mona Lisa Meade (née Tatum) and son Blake
By Catherine MacGillivray
When Hurricane Ivan hit Grand Cayman on 11 Sept. 2024, Mona Lisa Meade (née Tatum) was just days from giving birth to her first child.
At that time, Mona Lisa was living on Bel Air Drive in South Sound, with her then-fiance’s family in a singlestorey house. She, and other family members decided to ride out the storm there, with four women, four men, two children and two dogs huddled together at the property.
“Even though a Category 4 storm was quite concerning, we had all been through multiple hurricanes and felt we would be safe in the house,” recalls Mona Lisa. “We felt we were very prepared, but in hindsight, we should have gone to a shelter, although I don’t think there is one person who lived through Ivan who anticipated the water levels rising so high.
“The water inside our house reached approximately four feet, just barely sitting at the bottom of the light switches on the wall.”
SITTING IN THE BOAT
As the water began to rise, the family moved into a boat in the garage. “When the water reached waist-high, we all climbed into the boat except for the two older men, who stayed alongside it,” says Mona Lisa.
“We weathered the remainder of the storm in the garage without a door, feeling the sting of the wind and rain at times and watching the rain blow sideways.”
Water eventually got under the eaves, causing the sheetrock ceiling to disintegrate and cave in.
“But, by the grace of God, the house and the roof stayed intact; we were then able to tie the boat to the ceiling rafters of the garage,” adds Mona Lisa.
“The washer, dryer, and fridge eventually floated around, and the men pushed them out the door. Thankfully, we were able to save my mother-in-law’s medication from inside the fridge. I remember her reaching over the side of the boat and opening the fridge to get it; it was surreal.”
Sitting in the boat – wet and seeking comfort under a quilt – was a harrowing experience, which nobody knew if they would survive.
“Donnie and Uncle Lad (as we called them) stayed standing outside the boat, taking turns sitting on the back to take breaks, but they stood in that water for hours making sure we were alright,” says Mona Lisa.
“They held onto the boat to keep it from hitting the wall of the house and salvaged as many things from the water as they could.”
AFTER THE STORM
Once the wind had died down, the bedraggled group made their way along the road in a smaller boat, a Boston whaler, which became their water taxi.
They moved to other family members’ homes on Bel Air Drive. But it still took two days before they could get out for help, as much of South Sound Road had been destroyed, and clogged with uprooted casuarina trees.
When they finally reached a friend’s house in Savannah, Mona Lisa was then flown on an evacuation flight to Cayman Brac, the island where she grew up.
But although she had hoped to give birth there, she had a high-risk pregnancy, so was sent back to the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town in case she required to be flown as an emergency patient to the United States. However, undergoing a Caesarean section delivery, her son Blake was born a healthy baby, on 17 Sept.
“I recall looking out the window in disbelief at the dozens of cars all damaged from flooding and left to sit wherever they had washed up against each other, as if the waves had just tossed them around during the storm,” Mona Lisa says.
Despite the traumatic circumstances of Ivan, Mona Lisa says there was much for which to be thankful, travelling to the Brac with her baby once they left hospital.
“Blake being born during such a hard time was a blessing and a joy,” she says. “The couple of months we spent on the Brac getting to know our little man, and being around my family, was really joyful. We were safe and had everything we needed to get by.”
The story of Blake’s birth has come full circle as, 20 years after his mother spent her final days of pregnancy in a boat to make it through the storm, Blake now works at a watersports company on-island.
Mona Lisa looks back in gratitude for all the people who helped them survive.
“We will never forget,” she says.
Bjorna Ebanks and daughter Lyandrea
By Laura Munyard Durston
Native Bracker Bjorna Ebanks was due to give birth on 27 Sept. 2004, and decided to hunker down on Grand Cayman where she had lived for the last three years.
“With me being so close to my due date, leaving the island was pretty much out of the question,” she says. “Where would I have gone, other than the Brac, which was supposed to have taken a harder hit?”
Instead, she stayed and helped her partner prepare their apartment as best as they could. The couple decided to shelter at Mrs. Lucille’s, her partner’s mother.
“I had never seen any hurricane do any major damage to us before, so I assumed that Ivan would have been no different,” Bjorna recalls. “Little did I know how wrong I was going to be.”
Twelve people took shelter in Mrs. Lucille’s Scranton house, expecting a typical hurricane sleep-over.
“We never dreamed Ivan would have been so terrible,” says Bjorna.
As the storm intensified, trees bowed down to scrape at the zinc roof and rain battered the windows. A light pole collapsed onto the roof, which began to submit to the winds and lift away from the house.
The group evacuated, fighting the storm as they walked to a cousin’s house nearby. Bjorna struggled to get over a short wall blocking their path, and then ran as fast as she could through knee-high water to the refuge of the other house.
This refuge was not to last, however, as the waters began to rise further, forcing the group into the elements again and to another relative’s house nearby. Gathering in the living room, they sat listening to the raging winds, expecting every minute that the eye would arrive, offering some respite.
“Never have I experienced such a storm,” says Bjorna. “I believe it was the length of this storm that truly surprised me. We sat on that living room floor for hours, wondering what kind of storm were we in.”
Finally, Ivan did depart, and on Monday Bjorna managed to leave the battered house and make her way over felled trees and debris back to her apartment to collect intact belongings, ignoring the small pains she was beginning to feel.
Still intent on being prepared for the arrival of her daughter, Bjorna set to work hand-washing piles of now sodden and dirty tiny socks in the stifling heat.
‘HURRICANE IVAN SURVIVOR’
In the following days Bjorna’s discomfort increased, but she still battled to help clear debris and wash clothes until, on 17 Sept., she could bear no more and checked into the maternity ward at the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town.
The hospital was running on a backup generator, and while temperatures were warm inside, Bjorna remembers it being clean and orderly. Bjorna soon gave birth to a daughter, Lyandrea Elizabeth Watson, her ‘Hurricane Ivan survivor’, and stayed for three days, noting the kind and professional nature of the nurses.
“Given the fact that all of us had just survived a major hurricane, I think we were all extremely thankful, and maybe still in a bit of a daze …combine that with now having a healthy newborn…well, let’s just say I was undeniably thankful,” she says.
Upon leaving the hospital, the heat of the nights forced Bjorna to sleep in the car with her newborn daughter, keeping her as comfortable as possible before they were able to fly to better conditions on the Brac.
Bjorna has told her daughter about the days surrounding her birth.
“I believe that the thrilling times surrounding her birth will get passed on for generations to come,” she says. “I pray that Hurricane Ivan was the first and last hurricane that she will have to ever ‘experience’.”
LYANDREA TODAY
During the past 20 years, Lyandrea has become a driven young women.
After attending Prospect Primary and John Gray High School, Lyandrea now attends Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, she majors in criminal justice with a concentration in criminalistics. Her future plans, alongside travelling, are to utilise her degree whether at home in Cayman, or overseas, and secure a job in the crime scene investigation field.
She is also a member of the Cayman Islands national women’s basketball team, having been a keen sportswoman throughout her life.
Cheryl Birch and son Kai
By Catherine MacGillivray
Cheryl Birch was six months pregnant when Hurricane Ivan hit Grand Cayman.
She narrowly missed the storm as she had left the island a few days beforehand to celebrate her mother’s 70th birthday in Canada.
At that point, the hurricane was forecast to travel east of the Cayman Islands, so Cheryl was shocked when she heard that people were preparing for the worst.
“My fear for friends in Cayman was nauseating,” she recalls. “You can replace cars and buildings, but not a human life.”
She began keeping a diary, recording events to later share with her son Kai when he was older, writing down the reports she heard from people who had come through the storm.
“Many of our friends lost everything; we lost both cars, and probably half our belongings, but we are thankful that we are safe,” reads a diary excerpt from 26 Sept. 2004.
SEVERE DAMAGE
“Much of the island was severely damaged; friends say it was like a bomb went off. Water and power will take weeks; friends have taken buckets of the water from the pool to purify their toilets. The sludge and muck is everywhere. Entire complexes are destroyed, most trees are down. it will take months to rebuild and years to recover.”
Cheryl finally arrived back on-island on 26 Nov. to scenes of utter devastation and discovered other people living in the wreck of her rented apartment.
By now heavily pregnant, she tried to remain calm for her baby’s sake, knowing of mothers-to-be who went into labour months early as a result of the circumstances in which they were living.
She went to stay with friends, but with her due date rapidly approaching, the race was on to find somewhere habitable of their own.
FINDING A HOME
Finally, a couple of days before Kai arrived, they moved into an apartment, which although it had no functioning kitchen, provided the safe haven they needed.
“It was like he was waiting to get a home before he was born,” says Cheryl.
But it remained a challenge to find the basics for the baby, as the island was still in the midst of carnage.
Community spirit shone during the difficult times, however.
“This was the nice side of Hurricane Ivan, if there was such a thing,” says Cheryl.
“People came together and helped each other. For example, I was given a third-hand crib, which I later passed on to someone else. We helped each other out. To this day, despite living in a transient society, I make time to get to know all my neighbours. That connection is very important.”
Kai will be 20-years-old in January and is one of a generation of Ivan babies whose birthday marks the significant anniversary of the storm.
“In a way, it is normal for him, knowing that he was born just after the storm, but I believe he truly appreciates all the efforts and sacrifices made for him,” says Cheryl. “He’s a great kid.”
Deseray McLean and son Raheem
By Laura Munyard Durston
In the early formation of Ivan, projections pitted the storm as taking a direct course to the Sister Islands.
Many residents fled, seeking shelter in the larger island of Grand Cayman, assuming they would be safer there.
Bracker Deseray McLean was already enrolled at UCCI, pursuing an associate degree in science, and had been on island for a few weeks. She decided to weather the storm on the larger island as she did not want to miss classes and because she was four months pregnant.
By the early hours of 11 Sept. 2024, the National Hurricane Center in Miami had adjusted the storm’s path, taking it away from the now safer homes of the Brac and Little Cayman.
By that evening, Grand Cayman was readying itself for a direct hit. It was now too late for Brac residents such as Deseray to backtrack.
Initially planning to stay at her parents-in-law’s house with her husband Charles, his parents and two siblings, a last-minute change of heart led to them seeking refuge in the ill-fated Bodden Town Civic Centre shelter.
Here, listening to the howling wind, Deseray lay scared on blankets in the centre of the shelter, while pressure built in her ears and ceiling tiles rattled and lifted above her. She could feel the intensity of the storm building, and minutes later a loud ripping sound emanated through the building as the roof began to lift, exposing the angry sky above.
PANIC
Panic set in, with people running and screaming, while Deseray tried to remain calm for the sake of her unborn child.
Retreating to a nearby room, Deseray and her husband huddled with others, many screaming and crying, while the warden battled to keep the door shut against the wind. From inside this small room they could hear the groaning of the main room’s roof as it began to rip off.
“WE’VE LOST GEORGE TOWN”
At this point there was still radio communication with other districts, and the shelter warden tried desperately to make contact with others.
“We’ve lost George Town and I hear there are bodies floating around,” he said. These bodies would turn out to be cadavers, but not knowing this, Deseray worried for her family who were on island and not in her shelter.
“I can honestly say we accepted that we might not make it out of the building because the water was getting higher and we could see cars, houses and debris being thrown and destroyed from a window and cracked door from time to time,” she says. “I felt within myself I was not going to see my unborn child.”
Holding hands and praying, salvation came when a rescue bus arrived and the weary group made their way through the shelter, through exposed walls and hanging metal.
Deseray protectively held a pillow against her belly to buffer her child from the shoving and pushing around her, while rope was tied around everyone’s waists to lead them through 4 feet of black water from the damaged shelter to the bus.
Charles supported Deseray against the strong current until she was safely on the bus, which then battled to get to Bodden Town Primary School.
The couple remained there for three days after the storm, and it was there that Deseray felt her baby move for the first time. She now says, “I consider my son Raheem to be a miracle, having survived Ivan inside of me.”
Deseray and her husband were evacuated to the Brac.
Their son Raheem was born five months after the passing of Ivan. The now 20-year-old is an avid video game player alongside his younger brother Micah, and is an enthusiastic volleyball player, competing with a team three nights a week.
As well as being active, Raheem wishes to pursue a career in medicine. After attending high school in Cayman Brac, and completing A-levels in Grand Cayman, he graduated from Cayman Prep in June 2023. Currently he is undertaking a student internship at the Brac Dental Clinic, and his projected educational journey will take him to the University of Reading, UK, to major in biomedical science.
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