Sister Islands District Commissioner Ernie Scott is pleading with Sister Islands residents to get to Hurricane Shelters as soon as possible, after Hurricane Palmoa’s projected path tracked eastward towards the islands Friday evening.
Major Hurricane Paloma batters Cayman |
While hurricane shelters will continue to accept residents as long as the weather permits, Mr. Scott said residents should ideally be at shelters by 9.30pm.
“I really want to send out a warning to the community here to take this storm threat very seriously,” he said. “If they plan to leave their homes to come to the shelter they really need to be doing that right now.”
The Category-3 Hurricane’s slight north-eastern shift earlier in the afternoon put the Sister Islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, more directly in the path of the storm.
Mr. Scott said he expected the storm to pass close by Little Cayman between 7am and 9am Saturday morning, although he warned that weather conditions would deteriorate from 9.30pm Friday night.
He warned that Little Cayman’s south coast will be particularly at risk and urged those in houses there to think hard about whether they should stay at their houses or get to the island’s hurricane shelter.
“The forecast has the eye going just north of Little Cayman,” he said. “The Little Cayman situation is probably a little more dire than Cayman Brac because the storm is expected to pass closer to there.
“People that are living in condos and resorts in the south coast of both islands; they need to think really seriously about whether it is a good idea to stay there.”
At 8.30pm, the Brac was experiencing light drizzle and winds from the north-east at about 25 miles per hour.
About 250 people had made their way to three Government hurricane shelters on the Brac and the one on Little Cayman, but more continued to pour in, Mr. Scott said.
On Cayman Brac, the Aston Rutty Center; the West End Primary School and the Cayman Brac Daycare Center were all open as Hurricane Shelters. Little Cayman’s hurricane shelter was also open.
Mr. Scott’s said: “Be vigilant and make your decision now about where you are going to ride out the storm because by 10pm it could be too late to change your mind.
He said Sister Islands residents have remained calm as the storm has tracked toward them.
“We have been through this so many times in recent years, so the mood is calm; people are coming together with real community spirit, as usual, and we are as prepared as we can be right now.
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