A year after the Category 5 Hurricane Ivan battered Grand Cayman, parts of the island have recovered, as others continue to rebuild. It foreshadows a post-Katrina Gulf Coast.
By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer
Published September 11, 2005
[CourtneyPlatt.com photos
Kayaks await tourists at the Beach Club Colony, a 41-room Georgian Caribbean style all-inclusive resort on Seven Mile Beach.
Sand filled the ground floor at Morritt’s Tortuga Club, a time share hotel on the east end of the island after Ivan.
Tourism has rebounded on Grand Cayman in the year after Hurricane Ivan tore through the area, with boats ferrying passengers to the clear blue waters of the North Sound, home of the Stingray City attraction.
Customers enjoy the evening at the Paradise Bar and Grill in George Town.
GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman - For all of his 51 years, Charles Seymour has lived on this Caribbean island that many visitors consider paradise. The heat and the humidity were as routine to him as views of turquoise water that make it so enticing. Routine, too, were summer storms and threats of hurricanes.
A year ago today, Hurricane Ivan was almost on top of Grand Cayman, but Seymour didn't pay it much mind. Residents and tourists were scrambling to evacuate or take precautions, but he figured the storm would pass, as usual.
Despite its location in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba and west of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands - Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman - had not taken a direct hit since 1932. Seymour, a musician who goes by the name of "Lammie," remembered Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, but that had just been a glancing blow.
Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane, packed a far meaner punch, as Seymour recalled recently:
"I've never been frightened like that in my life."
As Ivan thrashed the island, Seymour, his wife, Judy, and their three children hunkered down in their house, hoping to ride out the storm. Soon, water started coming in.
Left with no chance to head for another shelter, the family climbed onto the rafters. The water kept rising.
For seven hours, the Seymours sat, waiting . . . and praying.
"It looked like we were doomed," he said. "Imagine being on the inside, and water is over your head on the outside. Wow!"
The water eventually receded. But one year later, this family is still without their home.
While waiting for it to be repaired, they are living in the house where his wife was born, on the other side of the island.
All of Seymour's musical equipment was lost in the storm, and it was not insured. It took most of the past year to replace it, and only recently has Seymour been able to perform again.
The Seymours' story is just one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, here. Any resident can tell you how Hurricane Ivan brought him or her suffering - whether it be their home, their business, or their jobs that they lost.
Because Ivan would go on to pummel Florida's Panhandle - and because it was the fourth hurricane to hit Florida last summer in a six-week period - news of Grand Cayman's plight was slow to make it north. Yet Americans have numerous business and residential interests in the Caymans, just 450 miles from the Sunshine State.
Ivan was devastating to this British Crown colony, known worldwide for its outstanding diving and international banking.
Winds of 155 mph moved just south of Grand Cayman, which is about 26 miles long, seven miles wide and home to about 35,000. With a wind field that expanded to 85 miles, the entire island was smashed. The storm surge brought a wall of water 10 feet high on land. About 12 inches of rain fell.
The damage was estimated at $1.8-billion - for this small an area, an enormous figure.
"Most of the island was covered in water," said Andrew Bacon, the former activities director at Morritt's, a time share resort that only partially reopened last weekend. "There were rumors about the island disappearing from radar because of so much water.
"I knew it was going to be bad. We started to prep early in the day and my wife (Monica) and kids had evacuated to Florida.
"Cell phones worked until about 5 in the morning and I remember calling Monica in the States. We had had about six hours of the most horrendous winds. I said, "Well, listen, the house has held up pretty good. I think we've weathered it pretty good.'
"She said, "It's not even there yet.' I remember the chill I got in my body . . .
"A few hours later, it hit into full gear . . . Night came, there was water all over. And the second day was the most torturous: We were walking in about three feet of water."
The recovery still continues. Many businesses have reopened in the most-frequented tourist area, Seven Mile Beach, and in downtown George Town, where the cruise ships disembark their thousands of passengers.
But many businesses in other areas are not yet open.
The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism reported in June that less than 50 percent of the hotel rooms and rental condominiums had been opened.
"The biggest challenge has been availability of resources to repair businesses, homes and tourist attractions," Pilar Bush, the country's director of tourism, told the St. Petersburg Times in an e-mail.
"For example, in the early weeks after the hurricane it was difficult to get enough labor on-island to do all of the work that had to be done. In addition, many people had to wait for insurance companies to settle claims before proceeding with rebuilding."
In some areas of the island, it took more than three months just for the electricity and water services to be restored.
"The things you get used to having - cold water, a hot shower, refrigerator - those things were gone," said Danny Kupkowski. "It's funny how quickly the sound of a generator didn't seem to bother me. (The devastation) effects you in so many ways."
Kupkowski, who grew up in Atlanta, has lived on Grand Cayman for 13 years. He runs a dive operation called Off the Wall Divers and his boat suffered significant damage.
But there was time to get it fixed:
The Cayman government closed the island to cruise ships until Nov. 1 and did not let overnight visitors - those without a Cayman passport or owners of property or businesses here - onto the island until just before Thanksgiving.
"To begin with, it was very bad," said Nick Buckley, who is originally from England and has a dive operation called Red Baron Divers.
"Nobody realized the ramifications of such a thing. We had absolutely nothing. We found an old barbecue set and jury-rigged it. We boiled water. We picked up food wherever we could find it. It took three or four days before we could even get anywhere."
The only hotel on the island that was able to remain open through the storm and beyond was the Courtyard Marriott, on the northern end of Seven Mile Beach. Due to favorable construction and its location atop a small hill, the hotel made it through the winds and had little interior damage from seawater and rain.
But there was no electricity, so a huge generator was in use for two months.
Steve Schwartz, the hotel's general manager, said he has spent 26 years in the Caribbean, including eight in the Cayman Islands. "I went through Gilbert in Cancun, I was stuck in Miami for Andrew, I even went through a typhoon in Tahiti," Schwartz said. "This beat the c--- out of all of them."
"Compare it to Andrew, " he said of America's second costliest hurricane that struck south of Miami in 1992. "There was more dollar damage, certainly more deaths. It was bigger. But (after Andrew), you could get in a car and drive for 50 miles and you had water and supermarkets open and everything you needed.
"Here (after Ivan), there was no place to drive to. No buildings were dry. It wasn't like you could get away from it. Even a month later, you couldn't get away from it.
"You couldn't sit in air conditioning, no place to get a real, complete meal. You couldn't get ice. We were living on what we had left over."
Amazingly, the island reported just two deaths related to Ivan: A man died when trying to secure his boat. The other death occurred when the roof blew off at a shelter in Bodden Town, and occupants tied themselves together to withstand the surging water and wind. One man there suffered a heart attack.
Although the Cayman Islands has a locally elected government, the queen's appointed governor has power to take control in a state of emergency and did so in the weeks after Ivan.
Some on the island have complained that not enough was done to seek aid from other nations. Although food and water were supplied to residents, many locals believed that people from around the world would have helped with rebuilding had they known the severity of destruction.
"(The government) tried to present the situation like we didn't need any help," said Seymour, the native-born islander. "But there are a lot of people who still do.
"Look around: We're into another hurricane season and some people still don't have their roof fixed.
"Tell the truth, this was something beyond our control. People will understand. They would look at the island today and say, "What a recovery!' It really is remarkable to see how far it has come."
"Things always take longer than you expect," said Bush, the government's director of tourism. "However, when I look at where we are today compared with the sheer destruction caused by Ivan, it's nothing short of amazing."
Surely Grand Cayman (Cayman Brac and Little Cayman suffered minor damage, because they are 90 miles away), still has a ways to go in its recovery. But that may not be obvious to the typical tourist - sunning on the beach, staring out at the clear blue sea, or scuba diving on the reefs and walls that surround the island.
Stingray City, one of Cayman's biggest attractions, still thrives, with dozens of boats taking divers and snorkelers to feed stingrays every day.
Bush said the recovery has been better than expected, that many hotels and tourist accommodations used the opportunity to upgrade or enhance facilities.
But she will never forget the experience.
Cayman's National Hurricane Committee chose to have her stay in the United States during the storm, and when she returned a few days later, she recalls she was "heartbroken and relieved at the same time: Everything was ravaged, and yet everyone was still so fortunate to have survived.
"We were all without electricity and water in the beginning and as a safety measure, we had a curfew. I remember lying in bed one night, next to an open window and trying to be very still in the stifling heat. The night sky was pitch black (there was no artificial light from signs or streetlamps) and the stars were brilliant - diamonds on black velvet.
"Ivan had tried to scrape us into the sea, but the yellow wristband on my arm reminded me we had a choice and the Cayman Islands had chosen to "Live strong.' "
- St. Petersburg Times staff writer Bob Harig has vacationed on the Cayman Islands many times and returned late this summer to survey the recovery.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE: Cayman Airways offers non-stop service from Tampa International Airport to Grand Cayman daily, Thursday through Monday, with connections to its other islands. Other daily service is offered from other cities by American, US Airways and Delta airlines.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: To find out more about the Caymans, including lists of activities, restaurants and accommodations, go to www.caymanislands.ky
