Hurricane Ivan impacted Cayman on September 11 2004 and remained for for three days. The entire island was breached by water which came in from all sides. When everyone climbed out of the rubble and sewage they emerged to a landscape completely unlike that which was before. As I write this on September 25 there is power only to limited portions of Georgetown. Water and power will not be restored to most areas of the island for many months. Generators have now arrived on the island and are slowly finding there way to those who need them the most. Before Hurricane Ivan I was exceptionally fortunate. As a photographer in the Cayman Islands I was doing what I loved and had no worries about the future. My condo in South Sound was almost paid off and my wife and I had contracted to purchase beach front property in Little Cayman to build a retreat for our family in years to come. We both waited to have children until such time that we thought we could provide a nice home. Our first child is due now December 23rd.. SkyWolfe.com . Unfortunately, in the current circumstances, we find ourselves wondering where we will raise our child. Furthermore, we stupidly did not have insurance in place when we got pregnant and our current health insurance will not cover this "pre-existing condition" so we will be paying for the delivery out of pocket. Aside from complications none of this would have been a problem with our projected income before Ivan. Suddenly everything is a problem as tourism has taken the brunt of it and most of my scheduled wedding clients are now re-booking to have their weddings elsewhere. This would be OK for a couple of months but I have cancellations as far off ar APRIL '05. This is not OK. The only work I have at the moment is taking photos of hurricane damage for insurance purposes or general curiousity of off-island owners. If you require this service or know somone who does please send me an email.. I need the work.
It should be noted that our story is typical of many residents here. It seems that insurance will pay off eventually but it will take at least a year for many to move back in to the homes they evacuated and we are all left looking for cars to drive and a clean place to hang the clothes and possessions that we salvaged. I am confident that all of us will emerge stronger and with better values than we had. Seven Mile Beach looks as good as ever, the hotels will re-build and we all got rid of some possessions that had been weighing us down for some time.
The following photos show the hurricane as we experienced it. You will see the boarding up process followed by pictures of hurricane Ivan as seen for my condo in South Sound. There are a few out a small crack above the boards on the front window showing my Toyota Land Cruiser being flooded and eventually swept away to find itself in the back yard. Note the change in wind direction. It came hard from the North at first, then once the eye had passed and the car disappeared it came harder from the South. You will see photos of the water level rising up the sliding glass doors in back. It got to about four and 1/2 feet before the glass gave in. My neighbor, Nick, was downstairs at the time salvaging a couple of lifesaving buoys as we sincerely thought we would need them to swim for safety. Nick was covered in the rushing water at that point. Nick, my wife Melissa, our dog tuffi, and I had decided early to weather the storm together. We were fortunate to have a radio and were expecting the flood. By the time things got really bad we had barricaded ourselves in the upstairs bedroom closet with a mattress over our heads. We had been there for about two hours when our neighbors forced their way through the partition in the attic and dropped into our unit in a panic thinking that the building was about to collapse. They had completely boarded up and did not have a radio so were unaware of the flood until the front door caved in. The six of us spent the next two days in my bedroom waiting for the wind to subside and the flood to recede enough for us to get out to the road and assess the damage. The remaining photos show formerly wealthy people turned refugees along South Sound Road. you will see my white Mitsubishi Pajero which had been locked in my Dad's "hurricane proof" garage now sitting on the wall in front of his house with my wife's blue Honda CRV behind. After that a trip around the island several DAYS AFTER the storm and then an aerial tour clockwise around the island. There are also many photos from Governor's harbor showing boats on houses etc.
My apologies if you have seen many of these photos before. Now ON TO THE PHOTOS