According to a report on StormCaribe, the Brac Reef Resort is a total loss (it appears that at least some resorts on Little Cayman fared better). I'm very sad as the Brac Reef is probably my favorite place on this planet. We've come to know a number of Brac'ers on our visits. You couldn't ask for a more hospitable group of people.
See below...
Hello,
My mother is Kathy Shroy one of the managers of Brac Reef Beach Resort. I have been in contact with her off and on over the past 6 hours. She said that Brac Reef is a total loss. What is still standing will have to be torn down.The Lobby, office, gift shop, spa, bar, and restaurant are all completely demolished. They lost the roof off of the top floor's rooms and have major damage to the bottom floor's rooms. The staff housing has roof damage but isn't too bad off.
The 30 tourists who stayed at the hotel are all fine the other 10 who went to a shelter are also safe. If you could post this on stormcarib for their families that would be great..They are planning to fly them out this afternoon as long as they can get the plane in.
My wife and I were among the guests and staff at the Brac Reef Resort during Paloma. At this time I believe all of the guests have been evacuated. I did not hear of any injuries or worse on Brac from the storm, but the property damage is extensive.
We are Gulf Coast residents, so hurricanes are no surprise, and we had internet access to track it, but Paloma was a real shocker, going from a Cat 2 headed toward GCM to a Cat 4 running over us in less than 12 hrs (absolutely no chance for the Weather Channel guys to show up in their raingear...). When I woke up about 0230 Sat AM, I felt we were getting hit harder than I expected, and by 0400, with the wind shifts we were seeing, I knew we were in for it. I estimate we were in/along the northern eyewall (storm passed south of us on a SW-to-NE track)for several hours, and the sustained winds were definitely Cat 4. There was no storm surge flooding damage, it was all progressive wind/rain damage. Out of 20 rooms on the second floor of the guest hotel, 18 suffered roof, door, and window breaches. Our room and next door were the only remaining "safe" rooms by 0700 - we were in the bathroom for a while when I felt our door was going to fail, fortunately it held. A couple rooms on the first floor remained safe and several groups consolidated there. Several intrepid leaders (Gary/Tim/Chuck I know for sure, sorry if I didn't see others) got outside and were going door-to-door - with their scuba masks on against the driving sheets of rain - to check up on everyone. All in all, folks did a good job taking care of each other - we're all trained divers after all, that should be second nature - and when the winds started to die down to a mere 30-50 mph around 9-10ish, we all emerged and found ourselves alive and uninjured. Everyone pitched in on a basic cleanup and rounding up of supplies. The staff had cold drinks and a hot meal for us by 1600 - what can one say about that under such circumstances other than "simply amazing".
And before I forget - Trudy, Kathy, and all the Brac Reef Resort staff took charge and immediately started getting plans in place to take care of the guests and get us evacuated, even though they had all suffered damage or loss of their homes, and were facing a very uncertain future. What a great display of selfless conduct and initiative. We just offer them our best wishes for the future, knowing they have a tough road ahead.
As for diving out of Brac anytime soon, I have to say it doesn't look good. Maybe they will get something going, but the BR Resort as we knew it is done for.
I didn't get a look at Little Cayman, as we departed Brac Sat night (another story).
GCM looked fine, really, I think they will be up and running soon, if not already.
Well that's a first-hand report, and I hope maybe some other SBers can add details they have gathered. All in all, a real adventure as it turned out, and a very positive story of people pulling together under duress. Maybe one could go so far as to say that there is some correlation to our outlook and training as divers?
S&V
