Nine months after being battered by Ivan, Cayman had to cope with another massive hurricane on
Thursday.
But this time ‘Hurricane Joel’ was an imaginary storm created as part of a table-top exercise to test disaster readiness.
And even though the exercise was indoors, those taking part had the pounding of rain, from the season’s first tropical storm, on the University College auditorium roof as an atmospheric reminder of what the weather can do.
In fact Thursday’s weather did have the final say in things with the organisers deciding, in view of the conditions outside, to shorten the exercise.
The operation brought together emergency services, government departments, medical services and others with an interest in dealing with hurricanes.
The participants were faced with a scenario in which 1,200 people were stranded at the airport, with flights being full, food supplies low and 1,500 people in the hotels and condominiums.
Questions were put to the various groups in the auditorium and they were then given a short period to offer answers.
Governor Bruce Dinwiddy, told the participants that with the experience of Ivan behind them, the country had strengthened its hurricane planning.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Director for the Americas and Overseas Territories Robert Culshaw said his department in London had been struck by the careful pre-Ivan preparations that had minimised the loss of life.
He said both Cayman and London were learning lessons from what had happened.
Despite cuts in the Royal Navy, Britain was maintaining the deployment of a frigate and supply ship in the Caribbean, and the UK was doing whatever it could to help wherever the next hurricane struck.
Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said lessons had been learned from Ivan, but that no matter how well prepared the country was, there were going to be times when they would look to London for help.
Many people thought there had not been enough of that forthcoming, Mr. Tibbetts said.
But against that, he added, had to be balanced the fact that the distance involved made things difficult to appreciate when they did occur.
Participants in the exercise heard, amongst other things, that Cayman was on an earthquake fault, that the Caribbean had a long history of tsunamis, that sea levels were rising and that 25 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil passed through the Caribbean.
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