As Hurricane Wilma lashed South Florida Monday morning, the storm was still affecting traffic in Grand Cayman because of a road closure in George Town.
Harbour Drive, from Boilers Road to Fort Street remained closed Monday even though the National Roads Authority had completed repairs to the damaged road over the weekend.
The road closure made for a longer than normal commute into George Town, with Smith Road being particularly impacted.
‘I’ve been on this same road for a half hour,’ said Patti Ebanks as she made her way along Smith Road to work at the Hospital.
Sherry Robinson of Cogent Communications noted that the traffic had been bad getting into town since last week.
However, schools closed the latter part of last week were open on Monday, compounding the traffic situation.
Ms Robinson decided to go to work late on Monday to miss the traffic.
‘I left at 9:05, but even going in late didn’t make a big difference,’ she said. ‘It still took longer than usual to get to work.’
It was not the damage caused by Wilma to Harbour Drive that kept it closed Monday.
NRA Managing Director Colford Scott said a crew of 26 people worked Saturday and Sunday to repair holes in pavement created by the storm last week.
‘The repairs were permanent,’ he said. ‘The holes were filled with hot mix asphalt.’
Mr. Scott said one section of road near Rackam’s Pub could not be repaired because the waves are still too high.
‘We’ve made the barricade around the hole there larger,’ he said. ‘We want to make sure the road base has not been undermined.’
Not all of the damage was caused by the high waves, Mr. Scott said.
‘There was some fresh water damage because of a broken pipe near the Landmark Building. The Water Authority repaired that, though.’
Mr. Scott said Harbour Drive remained closed because high waves were still splashing over the roads on Monday.
The NRA had made the decision to keep the road closed jointly along with the Royal Cayman Islands Police in the interest of safety, Mr. Scott said.
RCIP Sergeant Adrian Barnett said Harbour Drive would remain closed as long as the waves were still washing over the road.
He noted that the wind had shifted to the northwest and that the waves were actually a little higher on Monday than they were on Sunday.
If the waves were still high on Tuesday, which Mr. Barnett thought would be the case, Harbour Drive would remain closed.
‘I think we’ll most likely be in the same predicament in the morning,’ he said.
There is nothing that the police can do to reroute traffic when Harbour Drive is closed.
‘All of the traffic is on the same road at the same time,’ he said. ‘I would suggest people leave an hour earlier to get to work in the morning.’
Chief Meteorologist John Tibbetts said there was still a lot of energy in the ocean from Wilma. He estimated the waves were in the five to seven foot range on Monday.
‘We expect to maintain that range over the next two days,’ he said, noting that a cold front was heading into the area.
Although the winds on Monday were coming from the northwest, Mr. Tibbetts said it was not attributed to a Nor’wester storm, but from the effects of Hurricane Wilma.
‘It will probably be Wednesday before things calm down to normal,’ he said.
Related Videos
