Grand Cayman and Hurricane Ivan

[ScubaGoran]

Assuming the Ivan the Terrible heads north and avoids GCM, What happens to the vis?

 

[bubblehead]

What is the DAN insurance and where did you get it? I called re: insurance and the only cancellation insurance I could find required either Cayman or stateside airport to be completely shut down for at least 24 hours - not likely unless the airport is hit. I am traveling from Atlanta on Saturday and worried about getting to the island, getting around the hurricane at that point.

 

[scubachica]

What is the DAN insurance and where did you get it? I called re: insurance and the only cancellation insurance I could find required either Cayman or stateside airport to be completely shut down for at least 24 hours - not likely unless the airport is hit. I am traveling from Atlanta on Saturday and worried about getting to the island, getting around the hurricane at that point.

Check w/ your airline; they probably won't fly into Cayman if the hurricane is anywhere near it, even if the airport isn't directly hit. Take American Airlines, if Cayman is impacted by the hurricane, they'll let us change our ticket w/o a fee. They have flights going out every day from Baltimore so we could push back the departure date a day or two and still have a vacation. Someone on this board already changed their travel date w/ American, without a fee I think. Your hotel should also work with you if you need to reschedule (refund your deposit or let you reschedule for another time). If you want to completely cancel your travel, then you'll probably lose some money. If the Caymans escape Ivan w/ little damage and just a couple of days of bad visibility, you may just want to leave a couple of days later. Also, it may be too late to get trip cancellation insurance to cover Ivan.
Here's a link to DAN: http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/insurance/index.asp

 

[dazedone]

Check w/ your airline; they probably won't fly into Cayman if the hurricane is anywhere near it, even if the airport isn't directly hit. Take American Airlines, if Cayman is impacted by the hurricane, they'll let us change our ticket w/o a fee. They have flights going out every day from Baltimore so we could push back the departure date a day or two and still have a vacation. Someone on this board already changed their travel date w/ American, without a fee I think. Your hotel should also work with you if you need to reschedule (refund your deposit or let you reschedule for another time). If you want to completely cancel your travel, then you'll probably lose some money. If the Caymans escape Ivan w/ little damage and just a couple of days of bad visibility, you may just want to leave a couple of days later. Also, it may be too late to get trip cancellation insurance to cover Ivan.
Here's a link to DAN: http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/insurance/index.asp

AA did not charge me a fee to change my ticket. I was supposed to leave today. Bumped it to Monday which is 48 hrs after Ivan will be closest to GCM. As far as vis, I am in California, I am used to 10-20ft vis anyway, so that does not bother me at all.

However, it may be affecting things in Miami on monday, but I'm not worried about that at this point. All AA flights to GCM are from MIA this time of year, so if Ivan ends up in the Miami area on Monday (which is a possibility), then so be it.

 

[scubachica]

Well, I've come to terms with the fact that I won't be on a flight to the Grand Caymans tomorrow morning. Haven't come to terms with the possibility that I may not be going to the Caymans at all.

I'm going to wait and see what happens this weekend and then either head to Grand Cayman on Sunday or Monday, if we can, or scrap Cayman altogether and head to La Paz on Sunday or Monday. I don't know anything about La Paz and Sea of Cortez diving so I hope I don't make a mistake if I go there.

Those in the same boat, what have you decided to do?

 

[Drew Sailbum]

I decided to get out.

Go to La Paz. I wouldn't try to get to Cayman until Monday at the earliest.

When I left Thursday they had alredy ordered the airlines not to bring in any further tourists until further notice.

Rain over the previous few days (unrelated to Hurricane Ivan) has left quite a bit of standing water in low areas near the airport. The ground is already saturated and street flooding could be extensive.

 

[scubachica]

If it's possible to go to Caymans on Monday, I might do that. What abt Cozumel/Playa del Carmen instead of La Paz? Think the Cozumel area is still too risky w/ Ivan?

 

[bubblehead]

If it's possible to go to Caymans on Monday, I might do that. What abt Cozumel/Playa del Carmen instead of La Paz? Think the Cozumel area is still too risky w/ Ivan?

I was supposed to leave tonite through Atlanta tomorrow AM for the Caymans and we are bagging it. No flights in. Our condo is letting us reschedule for late October - hope its still standing. I did look into Cozumel and Akumel and they said it was beautiful there. Dont' think they will be impacted by the hurricane, except for some showers maybe. They also had availability! I am bummed my vacation is not happening, but it will come, unless we get another hurricane.

 

[-hh]

Here's some web-based "Hurricane Watch" stuff for Ivan in the Caymans. Unfortunately for some of us, its all based on Grand Cayman ... this technology hasn't yet made it out to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac.

Webcam at the Turtle Farm: http://www.turtle.ky/video.htm

Bill Roger's website on the East End which has some personal live webcams:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~brogers/live1.html
http://home.hiwaay.net/~brogers/live1A.html

...as well as some links to some other webcams in the Caymans.


Bill also had a web-based home weather station at:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~brogers/Cayman_weather.html

He recorded ~50mph winds during the last storm. Also check out its daily logfile.


The Cayman Islands Port Authority weather station is at: http://www.caymanport.com/weather.htm

and the "weather in cayman" website is:
ttp://www.weatherincayman.com/currcndx.htm

There's a little bit more stuff around, but these are the highlights. Personally, I expect LC and the Brac to get hit pretty bad (they're furthest east) - - they had docks lost and/or damaged from last month's "light strike". Wishing everyone in the path the best of luck and no casualties...


-hh

 

[scubachica]

Here's some web-based "Hurricane Watch" stuff for Ivan in the Caymans. Unfortunately for some of us, its all based on Grand Cayman ... this technology hasn't yet made it out to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac.

Webcam at the Turtle Farm: http://www.turtle.ky/video.htm

Bill Roger's website on the East End which has some personal live webcams:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~brogers/live1.html
http://home.hiwaay.net/~brogers/live1A.html

...as well as some links to some other webcams in the Caymans.


Bill also had a web-based home weather station at:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~brogers/Cayman_weather.html

He recorded ~50mph winds during the last storm. Also check out its daily logfile.


The Cayman Islands Port Authority weather station is at: http://www.caymanport.com/weather.htm

and the "weather in cayman" website is:
ttp://www.weatherincayman.com/currcndx.htm

There's a little bit more stuff around, but these are the highlights. Personally, I expect LC and the Brac to get hit pretty bad (they're furthest east) - - they had docks lost and/or damaged from last month's "light strike". Wishing everyone in the path the best of luck and no casualties...


-hh

Excellent Links. Thanks. Yes, good luck to everyone in Ivan's path. We're all hoping for the best.