Friday, August 29, 2008

Good news from Water Authority (and now CUC)

Update: We have a curfew now in effect and it will remain in force until the all clear sometime tomorrow morning. I am monitoring the storm carib site and someone just posted that the CUC (Caribbean Utilities Company) management has advised the local authorities that they would monitor line conditions and only shutdown areas that indicated a problem. They will continue to provide power and no specific shutdown has been scheduled.

Original Post: The water authority just issued a notice that they will not be cutting service tonight. Because we are south of the storm and the hurricane winds are to the north we wont get hit with more than tropical storm force and they don't expect a surge that will affect the water supply. CUC hasn't yet issued a notice and we hope that means they don't intend to cut electric service. Water is affected more than electric by the storms so that is a great sign. Its amazing the difference between a category 5 to the south like Dean 100 plus miles away and a category one 60 miles to the north. The Brac and Little Cayman are getting hit pretty hard and have already lost power intermittently.

We are getting drizzly rain and the wind has picked up. It will get stronger as the hurricane approaches and based on the last track its closest point of approach will cross right at 60 miles north of us. The local stations have gone to 24x7 coverage of the storm, one by just playing the Weather Channel and the other by simulcasting Radio Cayman. We have the Weather Channel on and they are doing a lot of Cayman coverage so for continuous updates check out that cable channel. The speed is up to 12 mph so its effects will not be as long as if it had stayed at less than 10 mph. Waiting on the 7 p.m. track which should tell us how the rest of the night will be.