The frantic feet of thousands of passengers hurrying to the screening lines at the Owen Roberts International Airport on Wednesday morning was an unmistakable sign of a mass exodus in full swing.
Among the passengers in haste to their respective gateways were scores of residents with young children who told the Compass of their intentions to seek refuge in North American states including Florida, Texas and New York.
To accommodate the mass evacuation, airlines including Cayman Airways, American, United, Southwest, Delta and a host of other carriers added last-minute flights that were quickly sold out.
The bulk of the outbound travellers were tourists like Steven and Veronica Jones and their son and daughter Zander and Zoe, who’ve had to cut short their vacation after learning that Hurricane Beryl was on a collision course with Cayman.
“At first we were watching it, and thought, ok, let’s see how this thing develops,” said Steven as he gathered their luggage.
Veronica, while checking their passports, added, “But then we saw when it developed into a Category 2 storm, we were like ‘no way, we need to go.’”
A dream vacation years in the making, cut short
The Indiana-based family arrived in Cayman on Saturday and intended to stay for one week. It’s their first international vacation and has been four years in the making.
“We tried to come back in July of 2020, but after booking our tickets earlier in the year, Cayman closed its borders due to COVID, so we had to cancel our flights,” Steven said.
“We even considered other places like Hawaii, and other Caribbean islands, but our hearts were set on Cayman,” said Veronica, who added they had heard amazing stories about the people and the islands’ natural beauty.
In line with their dream of an island vacation, the family opted to stay at the Morritt’s Resort in East End, where they enjoyed the more laid-back pace of island living.
“We got to do a lot of the fun stuff at the start of the vacation like, riding jet-skis,” Zander said. “I even got to try kangaroo sausages and lion fish tacos.”
His father add, “I got to do my first dive as well; it was pretty amazing.”
For the rest of the week the family had hoped to see the country’s historical sights and learn about the people and our way of life, but two days into the trip, Beryl developed.
The fear of the unknown
“We considered staying and maybe riding it out. After all, we’ve never experienced a hurricane,” Steven said. But in the end, fear of the unknown was the deciding factor.
“It’s not vacation if you are having to bunker down in a shelter, or having to live with no electricity or amenities, so we decided it was best to leave,” Veronica said.
At 6pm Cayman’s airport closed, leaving no other options for persons to depart. Shelters have since been opened and are available to tourists and residents.
“We know there are lot of people here who won’t be able to leave, so our thoughts are with them,” Steven said. “As soon as we get the chance, we will be back to see and enjoy Cayman properly.”
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