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With Tropical Storm Rafael expected to strengthen to a hurricane and bring 7-foot waves to the west side of Grand Cayman, condo owners along eroded sections of Seven Mile Beach were scrambling to fill sand bags and put up shutters on Monday.
Some buildings and several seawalls were already collapsing into the water following storm impacts in September and October.
The Cayman Compass has confirmed that shutters for the seafront units were going up at Laguna Del Mar, Cayman Reef Resort and the Sovereign. Residents were also filling sand bags to protect what was left of the landscaping, which had been mostly stripped away following the passage of recent storms that took down a number of large palm trees along with a large chunk of the sandy beach.
Small waves, potentially big impacts
Water depth has a direct relationship to the size of waves that come ashore. With the sea now lapping directly against seawalls in some locations, and no sand to help buffer and break the waves, even relatively small waves have the potential to arrive at the shoreline with tremendous power and energy, in part because water is so very heavy.
Each cubic metre of water weighs one tonne.
Any hopes that government would step in to protect and replenish the eroded sections of Cayman’s flagship tourism product, Seven Mile Beach, prior to the next election may have been dealt a blow by the resignation on Thursday of four members of the Cabinet, including Minister of Sustainability Katherine Ebanks-Wilks.
Local residents have also seen their rights of way along the beach eroded. In some areas there is no sand left to walk on and persons now have to either swim or walk through waist-deep water to cross areas that were once white sand beach.
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