Little Cayman is getting back to normal after going into rapid recovery mode following Hurricane Rafael’s direct hit last week.
By the weekend, roads had mostly been cleared of fallen electricity pole and wires, trees, sand and other debris, while power had been restored to much of the island.
Any visitors or residents on the island who wanted to evacuate had been transported off island after Cayman Airways shuttled passengers to Cayman Brac and onwards to Grand Cayman on Thursday and Friday.
Hazard Management Cayman Islands Director Danielle Coleman, who was on the ground in Little Cayman on Thursday to determine the extent of the recovery ahead, told the Compass, “Damage assessments and debris clearance operations are under way and one of the biggest things today has been the evacuation flights; getting all of the people off the island.”
On Tuesday, 112 tourists rode out the hurricane and then were trapped on the island the following day, when torrential rains forced the closure of runway operations, causing hotels to scramble and improvise, to feed and accommodate the visitors who were finally able to leave on Thursday’s evacuation flights.
Assessing and repairing the damage
The high winds and sea surge brought by the hurricane, which made landfall on the southwest side of the island around 9pm Tuesday, sunk dive boats, damaged docks, ripped the roofs off at least two buildings, and caused various levels of damage to several properties, including some of the hotels.
The steeple blew off the Baptist Church, and some of the siding came away on the Little Cayman Museum building.
However, all the government buildings, including the post office, the Public Works Department building and District Administration building held up without any significant impacts.
District Officer Tate McFarlane said he had been out clearing roads with a front end loader from 7:15am Thursday.
He said on Thursday afternoon, “Only a handful of visitors are now left at the Edward Bodden Airfield. Power is slowly being restored, though the sound of generators is still widespread. The phone lines have been difficult and nine out ten calls are not going through at the moment.”
He thanked the Public Works Department, the Cayman Islands Regiment and all the residents for their hard work in helping the island recover.
Speaking of some of the damage he had encountered following the storm, McFarlane said, “I had to push the roof of the home known as the Rock House out of the road on the south coast.”
At the time, he said, there were “still a lot of trees and poles down, and the road was still blocked going east from Head o’ Bay towards Kingston Bight Lodge”.
At this location, he said, another roof had blown off a building and the dock at the lodge had also been damaged in the storm.
McFarlane noted there was extensive flooding of the ponds on the northeast side of the island.
“There are large stretches where the pond is still completely covering the road,” he said.
On Thursday, the store at Village Square reopened, bringing hope – and supplies – back to the residents.
And while there were no operating restaurants or ATMs on Friday, technicians were on the ground from FLOW, CUC and Island Energy, all racing to restore connectivity.
“We have two more bucket trucks coming in on the barge tonight and that will give us the boost we need,” said a tired but confident-looking Raymond Walton from Island Energy on Friday.
Standing beside him was Jerry Holness, who was leading the team from CUC, which supported Island Energy in the restoration efforts.
“There is a lot of work to do, but we hope to have power mostly restored to the whole island within one week,” said Holness.
Eugene Thompson from FLOW said on Friday that the utility and the communications providers were working together and two factors in particular were operating in their favour.
“Unlike in Cayman Brac, where the poles snapped in Hurricane Paloma because they are buried into the rock, here most of the poles were planted in sand and they are still good, they are just leaning over and we can push them back up,” he said.
He added that, after a hurricane, people often damage and break power cables during clean-up efforts. “Here in Little Cayman, we have been able to protect them; we are carefully moving the cables off the street and to the side of the road, so that will make the restoration process much quicker,” he said.
Thompson said he had been working until 3am Friday to install a cabinet to bring back internet to the main town and the Blossom Village area.
“I have never heard it so quiet in all my life,” he said, adding that there was not a single car, not a bird, not even a mosquito or a ‘no-see-um’; “it was completely still and very dark.”
Official fact-finding visit
At around 7:30am Friday, the newly minted deputy premier, Kenneth Bryan, who is also the tourism minister, arrived on a flight from Grand Cayman, along with the chief officer in the Ministry of Tourism, Stran Bodden.
“We are here to listen to people and find out what we can do to help,” Bryan said. “Tourism is the lifeblood of Little Cayman, so we want to support them and make sure they can get up and running again as soon as possible.”
Oldest building on island damaged
Bodden has strong family connections to Little Cayman, and many of his relatives were born on the small island, working there their whole lives. On their tour of Blossom Village, he and Bryan passed by the oldest remaining house on Little Cayman, which was built in 1908.
Outside, part of the roof of the historic building was missing after being blown away in the storm, while inside, owner Penny Cumber was sweeping out sand and cleaning up with her daughter Juliet.
“The roof needs to be repaired and the floor is buckled up in places, but we are going to make sure the property is fixed,” said Cumber, who pointed to a support beam that she believes came from an ancient shipwreck.
“I love this old building. It is part of the character of Little Cayman, along with the beautiful old McCoy House across from my house, and we are going to make sure it is brought back from this hurricane, and we will make sure it is carefully restored,” she said, adding that the McCoy home appears to have survived without damage.
Bryan also stopped in Little Cayman Beach Resort on Friday, where resort manager Michael Ann Boyer told them a team from Harbour House Marina on Grand Cayman was heading over that night to patch a four-foot hole in the side of the ‘Paradise Diver’ dive boat and refloat it, along with another one of their boats, the ‘Holiday Diver’ which had also sunk in the hurricane.
“As soon as they patch the hole and refloat both boats, they are going to take them in tow and bring them back to Grand Cayman for repairs,” she explained.
Guests already arriving back on island
The resort was a hive of activity on Friday morning, with staff removing plywood shutters, clearing sand from the pool and hot tub and replacing the planks on the dock that had been pulled up in anticipation of the hurricane.
“We have 21 guests arriving tomorrow,” Boyer explained, to the surprise of the visiting officials.
In response to a question from Bryan, she added, “The guests have been told we are in hurricane-recovery mode, so they are coming in with their eyes wide open. They know what they are facing here in Little Cayman, but all of them still wanted to come anyways.”
She confirmed the restaurant and bar areas would remain closed to outside guests.
When asked what he could do to help, Boyer said the utility teams were already working as fast as possible but, “we need clean and steady power, for the reverse osmosis plant. Without that we can’t run the plant and produce water and a number of other properties, like Conch Club, are also depending on our plant for water.”
Damage at Southern Cross Club
The only other reverse osmosis plant on the island is at the Southern Cross Club, which sustained more damage than the Little Cayman Beach Resort.
When the Compass visited the location, manager Jennifer Mills was busy meeting with a surveyor, checking the damage in each of the rooms. Another member of the staff told us that there was no date set for reopening.
“Some of the rooms got a bit of damage and the middle section of the dock broke away,” explained one the divemasters, who was busy securing a large part of the dock that was now in the sea, so it didn’t get washed away and lost.
Other parts of the property had downed trees, and large amounts of sand had accumulated by the pool and main gazebo area.
Further down the coast, the Southern Cross boat, Lucky Lady, was visible high-and-dry on the beach, and it was not clear when it could be pulled off.
“When the boat broke away, it appears that it rode up on top of Mr. Dan Scott’s dock, and the hull and the propellor damaged a large number of planks,” explained Jack McLean, who had flown over to Little Cayman to assess the damage to the dock.
“Mr. Scott asked me to tell the staff of Southern Cross to stay off his property at the present time and leave the boat where it is, until it can be determined who is responsible for the damage,” added McLean.
The recovery process on Little Cayman appears to be progressing well.
On Friday, volunteers were helping to clean up Southern Cross Club.
“We are just working to bring everything back to normal as fast as we can,” said one volunteer. “We love Little Cayman.”
Regimental assistance
Members of the Cayman Islands Regiment were deployed to Little Cayman to help with the recovery work.
Lieutenant Cassandra Jocson of the Cayman Islands Regiment, speaking about the evacuation of tourists, said, “We supported Cayman Airways in various areas, from handling luggage to managing crowd control. Additionally, Peter Quilliam from the Little Cayman [Community Emergency Response Team] team had two of my team members assisting with chainsaw operations.”
She added, “This is our first deployment to the Sister Islands, and it’s been a pleasure getting to know the local community and partner agencies. As I mentioned to them, we’re eager to provide even more support on future deployments.”
As she left, she noted that “many people were sorry to hear CERT leader Quilliam was due to return to his home country of New Zealand”, but she wished him the best on the next chapter. She said she knew from her short deployment in Little Cayman that many people in the community would miss him, especially the Little Cayman CERT team.
MP for Cayman Brac West and Little Cayman Moses Kirkconnell said of Hurricane Rafael’s passing, “We are grateful Little Cayman had no loss of life.”
He added, “The priority now is to put infrastructure back in place … everyone is working together towards this goal. In the near future, government and the community can work on a strategy to harden the island even more for future hurricanes.”
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