The Cayman Compass has been part of documenting history-making events, like Hurricane Ivan as it unfolded, and, like many in the community, our team also experienced the storm’s wrath.
In this piece, some of our staff members share their memories of Hurricane Ivan in their own words.
Shano Evans – Compass Media IT, reception and sales: I remember the minutes leading up to the devastation of Ivan before it hit the island … the house shook, a lot of thunder, lightning and rain. Myself, my mother and a lot of family members were in our house [in George Town Central] when the roof collapsed. We ended up having to just jump from our house across the street to my aunt’s house. We had to form a [human] chain to cross the street because the winds were so heavy …. I can remember looking down the road and seeing the rain, the seawater coming. It was a scary scene at that time. We ended up spending a few hours sitting in neck-deep water, with the youngest on our shoulders. … It was scary. We did have to relocate again because [my aunt’s] house couldn’t take that much pressure that was coming in, and we ended up moving to a shelter right after that.
Theresa Drummonds – Compass Media Classified Department: I was not prepared. I thought, oh it’s nothing … now I know different. I remember I didn’t have water, food; my apartment wasn’t even battened up or anything like that. I’m [laying in the bed and] the roof literally came off completely. Everything was off and the house completely was blown open … all the windows, all the doors. It was like a bomb that went off in that house. It was like a sense of, ‘OK, I’m gonna die. But at least my family know where I was’. I went in the closet and everything was just going … the door kept banging back and forth, and it’s scary when you’re alone … All I could do was pray. I was in that closet for two days by myself, no food, no water, and sitting there I was thinking I’m never going to see my family.
Mark Westin – Compass Media social media assistant: I was about 8 years old when Ivan came. I remember the morning that Ivan hit. My family went to Seven Mile Beach and the calm before the storm was really evident at that moment. The water was so calm, but we could see in the distance the storm rolling in, and it was kind of a surreal experience. That evening, as Ivan was hitting, we walked to Smith Cove beach and the wind was picking up, the waves were massive, coming almost up to the road. That’s kind of when everything got real …. we were all sleeping together in the living room. A few of the upstairs windows had blown in [on the second floor] … I remember just sleeping in the living room together, praying together, just waiting out the storm. Felt like an eternity, but eventually it did pass, and then stepping outside for the first time after, I just remember it being so quiet and cold.
Seaford Russell Jr. – Cayman Compass sports journalist: I was a child when Ivan hit. I vividly remember when my stepfather bust open the door [of the room we were sleeping in] and said, ‘We need to get out and we need to get out now. The roof is coming off.’ As he said that, I remember the roof, literally the whole entire roof, just came right off and I saw it just go flying off into the night. I remember he opened the front door and water just came right in … it was at least 4 to 5 feet of water. I swam over to the Bodden Town Civic Centre which was right behind the police station … I had to swim probably 600 to 800 metres to the Civic Centre in an active storm. My mother was behind me. I was swimming ahead of her and she had my little sister in her arm. We were literally in the eye of the hurricane. I remember [when she got to the Civic Centre] the bottom of her foot was split from a piece of glass. I think the aftermath was the toughest time for everyone … It was a struggle, but then for a lot of people it was a time of happiness and camaraderie and it really brought the community together.
Angela Sevilla, nee Bush – Compass Media marketing and digital coordinator: My Ivan story is a little unconventional because I actually was not here during Hurricane Ivan. I had just moved away to college. I was actually in Orlando at the time. When Ivan was really starting to hit Cayman, [I was on the phone with my mom] and I remember her explaining to me that the water was starting to rise a bit. She had to take some of our animals and put them on couches and everything up on higher ground, and as we were talking, she was telling me that she didn’t know what was gonna happen. She was scared, of course, everyone was, and then the phone cut and that was it. I didn’t hear from her for probably about six days. Those six days were like the longest days ever … My dad finally called. I was in class. I ran out really fast, picked up the phone and it was him on the phone, and to hear his voice was just such a relief. The first thing he said to me was ‘to go to Home Depot and buy generators and put them on the next ship down in Miami’ and I did.
Ivan Burges – Cayman Compass credit controller and archivist: My Ivan story, well, I tell you after this, after the hurricane I was immediately known as Richard because I didn’t want to get in any trouble. Obviously, we bunkered down at about 10 o’clock in the evening, having been warned that the power’s going to be cut off. Everything seemed fine. I kept hearing, a bit later on, banging across the building. I eventually found out that it was cars floating around hitting the building. At home, the windows started to buckle in, despite these being brand-new windows and supposed to be hurricane force [proof]. They buckled towards me. We decided to move into the corridor rather than just stay in the bedroom and in the lounge area, and fortunately we did that, because the windows did actually implode. We’d got a lot of rain and it did a considerable amount of damage. Afterwards, we moved to the NCVO because we couldn’t stay there.
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