Hurricane Gustav

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Structures in LC did get hit badly.

Partial roof off the bank and hardware section of the grocery store.

Some dive boats are on land or almost so.

It appears all southside docks are damaged. Most gone.

Power lines down. Trees down.

LCBR dive shop has roof leaks, but most of the property fared well. Some siding and gutters down.

Lots of debris around.
 
Here's an update, with some photos taken on the Brac yesterday; passing them along.


-hh


Cayman Brac

General conditions appear to be debris on roads, wires down, some roof damage...but no roofs completely lost. There's trees down, fences, shingles blown off, etc. Water damage on homes on the Southside, but nothing flattened. ALSO: contrary to one isolated claim heard so far, there has been no evidence so far of any roads on the Brac being "breached" (ie, pavement undercut & washed away). There have of course been flooded spots, as well as sections where debris (including coral rubble & sand, as well as downed trees and wires) have blocked the road's passage, but that's not a 'breach'.


Brac photos

Typical road 'debris':
jpg1SZFd4uPoZ.jpg



Southside-
Brac Reef 'Cabana' portion of Dock (damaged, but not gone):
jpgrwI050XGxK.jpg


Southside-
Brac Reef - Reef Divers main dock area ("half" gone; still room to bring 2 boats in):
jpga0qlLFuqQB.jpg


Southside-
Divi Dock (gone):
jpgZryQiPphdC.jpg


Southside-
Grounded Diveboat (I think its the Deja Vu?):
jpgMlfNe5AJbZ.jpg


Northside-
Brac's "Radar Reef" groin & boat ramp ... no wood here to rip up:
jpgPargekVf3V.jpg


The UK warship HMS Iron Duke is now anchored off Cayman Brac, to
provide aid to the Sister Islands, and HMS Wave Ruler (supply ship) is
headed for Grand Cayman.

Brac power is restored from the power plant east to Spot Bay (all northside), according to the Government, but residents to the west of the power plant in Stake Bay report getting power back yesterday noon.

Water is down awaiting system check, Gerard Smith airport is receiving flights (probably limited flights).


Little Cayman:

No photos yet; limited communications. Generally all power still down, extensive amounts of road blockages from trees & power lines.

Verbal Report: loss of roof on the bank, and the hardware section of the grocery store...from another source, statement was: "Village Square has lost its roof".


Via a helicopter survey (from the HMS Iron Duke), "every dock" on Little Cayman was either severely damaged or destroyed. "All diveboats" were reported to have been missing from their dock/moorings, and "4-5 dive boats" were reported to have been observed to have been washed ashore (somewhere). Also commented on apparently extensive roof damage being broadly observed (a generalized statement).

Mr. Scott was quoted in the press as saying: "The south road along Little Cayman has been breached by sand and rock in six to seven areas and there is also a fair amount of flooding on the road".

In this context, its unclear if Mr Scott is referring to a blocked road or a true breach, particularly since this was an air survey. In 2004, Ivan did both "breeches" and "blocks", such as on sections of the Southside road east of the resorts (towards Tarpon Pond). I personally recall that there's also some road sections quite close to the water on the North side near Jackson's that probably went underwater, as wave action on the north side wasn't perfectly calm either...see Radar Reef photo, above.



Still no casualties reported for either island; the best news of all.


-hh
 
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Just back from Little Cayman. They closed all the dive resorts on Wed and cancelled Tuesday afternoon dives. Cayman Air added a few flights out on Wed am to get everybody out, then added a few out of Grand Cayman to Miami, then we were all on our own to make our way home. There were only about 16 divers as they were renovating one building, so not a huge deal to get us out, but the staff needed time to prepare from Gustav. LCBR handled everything well. Trip ended up getting cut short by 3 days, but I took out trip insurance for this one, so need to go call on that now.

Hi Scubaschne... I was there at LCBR at the very same time... My guess is we dove together for at least a few days... :happywave:
The only thing I have to add here is that I was told (by one of the construstion guys on site) that they planned on taking up the planks from the dock on Wednesday after we left... A lot of work (such a BIG dock area) however... Hope they did...
I agree... The LCBR did a great job, I'm sure it helped that there were so few of us at the resort at the time too... I wish them ALL well... And... I hope to hear an updated damage report soon...
I bought the DAN trip insurance for this one and I'm covered... With LCBR being so great about offering a refund for the unused portions of the stay, meals, dives and even nitrox with them, I think all my DAN trip insurance will need to cover will be the emergency flight from Grand to Miami... They are sending me forms to be filled out and asked for copies of any payments made... They also asked for a letter from the resort stating we were indeed evacuated due to the hurricane... The other airline (USAirways) basically swapped out the new flights home for the original, with no change fees...
 
On the trip insurance claims, they should not hold credits for return stays out of your payments. Those are losses that should be paid even tho you might use the credits/discounts later. That is the normal way of processing such claims with other companies...
 
On the trip insurance claims, they should not hold credits for return stays out of your payments. Those are losses that should be paid even tho you might use the credits/discounts later. That is the normal way of processing such claims with other companies...

The resort is offering to give us actual refunds, not credits or discounts toward later stays... I believe they are nice enough to offer the actual refunds because there were so few of us staying at the resort at the time...
 
I have looked high and low and have had no success finding travel insurance that didn't have natural disaster (hurricane) exclusions. If you insurance pays, can you let us know what insurance you got.

Thanks.

I used CSA too. Was in CB and LC the week before. Had a couple of days diving canceled due to Tropical storm Fay. LC only gave us dive credit vouchers good for a year. Not usable at their sister resort on Brac which was our next destination. Since I am unlikely to go back in a year ( and they are nontransferable), I talked to CSA, they said that should be covered. Will see after they process the claim forms.

Thanks, Don, for the additional insurance info.
 
We have been watching the storm progress and worried about all these little islands that are in its path. The Caymans really didn't need to see a direct hit like this. The economy has hit them bad enough....
So sad to see all the damage! Please keep posting information:(
 
Hi Scubaschne... I was there at LCBR at the very same time... My guess is we dove together for at least a few days... :happywave:
The only thing I have to add here is that I was told (by one of the construstion guys on site) that they planned on taking up the planks from the dock on Wednesday after we left... A lot of work (such a BIG dock area) however... Hope they did...
I agree... The LCBR did a great job, I'm sure it helped that there were so few of us at the resort at the time too... I wish them ALL well... And... I hope to hear an updated damage report soon...
I bought the DAN trip insurance for this one and I'm covered... With LCBR being so great about offering a refund for the unused portions of the stay, meals, dives and even nitrox with them, I think all my DAN trip insurance will need to cover will be the emergency flight from Grand to Miami... They are sending me forms to be filled out and asked for copies of any payments made... They also asked for a letter from the resort stating we were indeed evacuated due to the hurricane... The other airline (USAirways) basically swapped out the new flights home for the original, with no change fees...



Hi girls!!! Sorry I missed you Karen!!! I am glad you are all back safe. Thought TS Fay was bad. But this is much worse. I hope the folks at CB and LC are able to get up and running again soon. Thank God no lives have been reported lost.
 
Dandy Don, regarding insurance payments, in talking with Reef Fantasies who books for LC and Brac Reef, insurance companies call before paying out, so a person is unable to take both the dive credit for future use and the refund, its one or the other. I don't understand why an insurance company would pay for the lost days, then let you go later using credits for future stays, am I missing something?
 
Hi girls!!! Sorry I missed you Karen!!! I am glad you are all back safe. Thought TS Fay was bad. But this is much worse. I hope the folks at CB and LC are able to get up and running again soon. Thank God no lives have been reported lost.

Hi Rosa... I'm sorry I missed you too... It would have been GREAT to see you again... Seems to me we simply HAVE to plan another dive trip together girl... :14:
As for getting out safely... Yes, I'm glad myself... LCBR handeled everything well... We were given cell phones to use to call airlines, family etc... They even worked on getting us the flights from GC to Miami... Oh and the hurricane party Tuesday night was pretty dang fun too... :wink: We were lucky to get out "when" we did also... I'm SURE we just missed the mad rush at that tiny little GC airport too... phew!
And YES!!! No lives lost is more than great to hear... I'm patiently waiting for replies from a few of the staff that were kind enough to give me their email address...
 

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