Sunday Snorkeling Tour

Things are much quieter here this weekend. This afternoon we went on a snorkeling tour to three different beaches to see how the surge had affected them.

We started out in East End at a beach near Colliers Bay that we hadn't been to before. The water was murky and even with a lot of sea weed there weren't many fish around. After swimming out to the open water and not seeing anything we headed back in got in the car and drove across the north side of the Island to Cayman Kai.

The public beach at Cayman Kai was still in good shape but like all the beaches we have seen this past week, a lot of rocks had washed up with the surge. While walking along the beach we did have a humorous moment. Some American tourists had obviously just moved in to one of the beach front houses and I guess they weren't told all beaches on Cayman are public so when we walked by and right onto their "part" of the beach to get in the water they reacted huffily. Other people were coming in the same way and at some point they must have realized they did not in fact have a private beach. American concepts of private beach property don't apply down here and I found myself enjoying their discomfort, "sorry folks gonna have to mix with the locals whether you like it or not." Too bad for them, they will be in for a long week as the snorkeling at that beach is still some of the best we have seen on Cayman and many people know it.

We ended up at Beach Bay and it was the most changed. The surge blew in many of the rocks in the carefully created pool area. The snorkeling was almost dangerous with huge boulders and rebar sticking up throughout the swimming area. The waves now came in largely unobstructed so the current and water levels were not the easy pool like quality that existed pre-storm. The beach itself was packed with rocks and getting to the water was even more of a chore than it had been in the past.

It was great to get out and go snorkeling. It is really the best part about living down here.

On Friday we returned the kitties. It was tough but the right decision. We may get some cats in the spring but right now we aren't home enough and want to do some traveling this fall.

Our air conditioning is on the fritz so we are getting to know Cayman in August with just fans. Yesterday a huge storm blew through and the septic tank backed up filling our down stairs tub with some foul smelling liquid. A lot of bleach and cleaning later the tub is clean. It affected all the units on our complex and a truck was out last night to drain the tank some. We also are dealing with some kitchen sink issues so by golly its just like being homeowners again. Will be dealing with our landlord on this no doubt in the next couple of days.

Getting Back to a Normal Life

By Scott:

It is very strange going about the normal day to day activities after an experience like we just went through. Tuesday was basically a clean up day around the Island but by that afternoon the stores had reopened and everyone was getting back to their regular lives. We cancelled classes Tuesday to let everyone who had evacuated have enough time to get back on Island. Yesterday we went in early and basically unpacked the college. The TV appearance about our tourism program is back on for tomorrow and its back to budgets and textbook orders and academic advising and registration. I asked some of our students how they do it, come down from such an adrenaline rush, and they said after a while you just get used to it.

We had house guests Tuesday night as April and her family arrived on Island and still didn't have power at their new place. Rather than having them stay at the apartment in the college we offered our two guest rooms. The kitties are with us for one more day before going back to the Humane society tomorrow. After much thought we decided we really don't have the ability or time to take care of cats right now and will wait until the spring to get some so Dean, Nick, Princess and Josie will be headed back to go up for adoption.

With only a week and two days left in the quarter we will be having Friday and Saturday classes to make up missed time so this will be a working weekend. We do want to get out and do some snorkeling as well and some bike riding so it should be an active weekend.

All Clear and the Return of Andreas

At 4:30 p.m. the Cayman government officially issued the all clear. They had lifted the curfew two and a half hours earlier and all electric and water is back up and running. There are still high winds buffeting the island and rain will be a fact of life for the next couple of days but the storm itself has now moved on. Our neighbor Keith drove me over to the sports complex and I retrieved our car. With the battery reattached the engine started right up and our newly named Andreas (Katie always names our cars) ran just fine. From there, I drove over to the college using the main road that runs along the southern coast. The waves were huge and people were everywhere stopping to look. The surge had obviously come in because you can see flooding all along the coast. Hirst road also had some high water points and I had to drive in the wrong lane a couple of times to avoid it as I headed up to the college. Once there I confirmed that ICCI came through just fine and headed over to Elsa's to check on her and Mr. Keith. They are both well and we agreed to resume classes on Wednesday to give everyone who evacuated time to get back to the Island.

Everyone is out now clearing debris and talking with each other. The maximum winds were 64 miles an hour here and there are downed tree's and flooding in low lying areas but I didn't see anything major even in the complexes right along the coast. The radio is reporting no deaths and only minor injuries so it seems everyone rode it out in security. There is a heavy police presence which means the lesson of all the looting post-Ivan seems to have been learned. Tomorrow will be a day to get our house back to normal, take down the plywood off the patio and clean up. I think we will leave the plywood up on the upstairs window for the next several weeks in case we have to do this again. That is the hardest piece to attach and while it means darkness in the bedroom and not the prettiest outside aesthetic it makes sense with hurricane season just now starting. long term we need to get Hurricane shutters but that could take a while with our landlord so plywood will be our option for the remainder of this season.

The cats are doing fine and we dont know how much longer we will have them though we will be asking about adoption of Dean and Nick. We are making dinner now and will have a quiet evening and an early bed time. The first really peaceful sleep in five days.

Back on the air

No sooner had we written about how lucky we were to not have lost power then right at 10:00 a.m. we lost power. It was out until about 2:20 and has just come back on. In the interim around 10:45 we got a knock on our door. Keith and Kathleen were out cleaning up debris. The winds were still howling and there was a slight rain falling but the worst was clearly over. Throughout the neighborhood people were out on their porch or walking around. I went out to talk while Katie stayed in (not a good time of the month for her). About 11:15 I went for a walk and got the following pictures of the trees and wind. We only lost one tree in the neighborhood and no one lost any windows. Everyone was remarking how lucky we all are.

The curfew was officially lifted at 2:00 p.m. though they are encouraging people to not go out for long. We are doing a caravan for everyone to go get their cars here in a little while. Hope ours made it, if so Andreas it is.

Wind is still blowing pretty strong and you can see rain showers on their way. We are safe and all is well. Of course the weather channel is already talking about an area of concern off the coast of Africa. We have taken down the plywood from the front window to let some light in. You would be amazed how much you lose perspective in a boarded up house. Letting the light in was a pretty amazing thing. Will update after we check on the car. Thanks again for all your prayers they definitely made a difference and were a great comfort to us as well. There is flooding in Savannah and some other parts of the Island especially along the southern coast got hit harder than we did. The surge never got to us but did to some others so keep them in your thoughts and prayers and even as we ponder how lucky we were we sympathize with those who had to face this monster head on and not the glancing blow we took.

9:40 update

We have spoken with Kelly, the ICCI librarian in Miami and the folks who stayed at her place have lost power. That was going to be our backup if Lonny hadn't gotten all the plywood up and given us the OK on our place's structural soundness. Kelly's place is about a mile down the road from us. Our lights have flickered twice but no outage. We also spoke with Elsa and Keith by cell phone at around 9:00 a.m. They are riding it out at their home near the college. They are OK. They too have lost power but Keith has a generator up and running. The winds are really howling again now as we get to experience the back end of the storm. We already felt incredibly lucky but now hearing that others have lost power while we haven't, as of yet knock on wood, makes us feel all the more fortunate. Will be making a late breakfast now and trying to pass the time on the net or watching DVD's. Keep the prayers going because they are working. Katie and I are now adding our own for the rescue and police workers who even now are out and about on Cayman and for the folks now in the path of the storm. We all need to remember them in our thoughts as well.

Wind Track

This is the best representation I have found of the winds we are experiencing. We are the Island directly above the Hurricane. As you can see we are getting only tropical storm winds and were spared what passed right off the coast of Jamaica. Katie has gone back to sleep I suspect that tonight I will crash hard after an up and down night last night. The kitties are doing well this morning too, I expect new addition(s) to our household before they leave. Winds are still loud but somehow don't seem as threatening as the gray light of a cloudy day peeks in from under and over the plywood.

7:35 Monday Morning

We are both awake now after a brief nap from 5:30 to now. It is a virtual certainty at this point that by the grace of God Cayman has been spared what pounded Jamaica. The winds continue to be heavy, the best description I can give is from earlier it sounds like an airplane taking off, but right now the rain has stopped and there is no flooding in our parking lot so not even a threat at present to the home. The NOAA site says a storm surge of 5 to 7 feet which doesn't appear to have reached our home at all. The eye is directly south of us now and moving at a good 21 mph so in theory we should have already seen the surge and had to deal with any flooding. God Bless the poor people on the Yucatan, while we were spared they are in for a pounding. If you know of any organizations that provide supplies or relief for the people of Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic who got hit so much worse than we did and who don't have the economic or government infrastructure of Cayman, now would be a good time to make a donation. I know Katie and I will be making one as a show of thanks.

There will still be very high winds all morning and a lot more heavy rain throughout the day so we cant venture out until late and may not be able to go for our car until tomorrow though depending on conditions we may try later tonight. We never lost power the entire night and are hoping they turn the water back on soon after the storm completely passes. We will start moving everything in the house back to normal later this afternoon and then finally give you a picture tour that is not hurricane prep. Though as our neighbor Kathleen pointed out to us last night on her porch they call this Hurricane "season" and this wont be the last time we have to do this.

We feel incredibly lucky and very grateful for all your prayers. While this isn't over yet it is certainly safe to say that the worst has not happened and in every respect the best possible has. The Hurricane literally took the best possible path it could for us overnight and this morning. We will update throughout day and keep the computer on we will sign back in to windows live shortly.

4:50 a.m. Monday Morning

I woke up from a particularly loud wind gust and decided that I wanted to check the latest track. What a beautiful sight. The track has Dean south of us and moving quickly. I cant imagine what it must be like for one that is close. The sound right now is like airplanes taking off right outside our house as the wind howls. Katie must have a supernatural ability to sleep because she is sleeping right through this while I wake up with every loud howl. I peered out from under the plywood in the downstairs living room and the rain I could see on the parking lot is like sheets I have never before experienced. If this is tropical storm winds and rain I cant even imagine what hurricane force winds and rain are like. We are just about to start getting the worst of it here in about an hour and a half and at 20 miles an hour will feel it for most of the rest of the morning with the aftereffects lasting through Tuesday plus. We still have never lost power which speaks well for CUC. We are hanging in and hanging on, me a little more unable to sleep than Katie but still here, still dry and still able to get on net. God Bless and Be safe.

Scott and Katie

Monday 2:00 a.m. Status

Back on air much earlier than we anticipated. The sound of wind and rain woke me up at about 1:45 a.m. Since we had power I pulled the Internet receiver tower out of the tub to see if it was still receiving and with three bars I decided to try plugging in the computer and checking the NOAA website. The track continues to be south of us for the eye which is great news. We are in for a rough couple of hours but hopefully are escaping what pounded Jamaica. Someday I will be able to tell our children that their Mom can literally sleep through anything.

At 10:00 p.m. we closed up the computer and Internet tower and stowed them in the tub. We blasted the A/C to get the place as cold as possible for the expected power loss. We let Josie out for a little alone time with us but then put her back in with the kittens and finished an episode of Scrubs after which we turned out the lights and got some sleep. I woke up around Midnight but was able to go back to sleep until the most recent round of noise led me to wander downstairs and check on whether there was any flooding. Right now just a lot of wind and rain. Thank God for the plywood as there must be a lot of debris flying around out there. Anything not tied down or really heavy is on its way to Mexico.

Katie is on me to go back to sleep and put away the computer but I have way too much nervous energy. Unlike dealing with a Tornado such as the ones we have been through in Fort Worth this is not a hunker down in your bathtub until it passes over kind of thing. You can walk around your house etc. which just seems weird. So long as the roof holds, one room is no different than another. We are riding it out in the master bedroom upstairs on the back of the house which all our neighbors said was the safest room if the eye was south of Cayman as it is.

They did cut the water so we are flushing with the water we filled the tub with. The tub wouldn't hold water so we ended up bailing that water into our trashcans and buckets and will use it as our potable water until they get the water back on. We know that we haven't even begun to feel the real effects of the storm. That will come later this morning between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. with after effects well into the late afternoon. Don't know if Cayman has been spared but the early signs are all good.

With plywood up and no way to see out I cant give you any kind of description except for the sounds. The rain is constant and the wind must be strong as you can hear it pounding into the walls. Our antenna is still hanging on as I can hear it banging away outside our bedroom window. The radio stations are all still transmitting which is another good sign.

Signing off again and putting everything away again. Depending on power and my ability to sleep may try and get everything back on again later this morning.

We love you all, so far your prayers are doing phenomenal work so please keep them going.

God Bless and Be Safe.

Scott and Katie

Sunday final update

Its approaching 10 p.m. and we expect them to cut the power soon so we are unplugging the computer and packing it away. We are both tired enough that we are hoping we might actually sleep for a little while tonight. Nothing much new to add from the last several posts. We have put down towels and old sheets across the bottom of the patio doors and the front door, a last defense against the expected flooding. We are watching Scrubs episodes on the portable DVD and will use the computer's battery tomorrow during the storm to watch some episodes and pass the time. You can hear some of the howling wind as it moves our antenna around outside the bedroom window. Don't hold much hope we will still have an antenna tomorrow afternoon. We will call my Mother and Father and Katie's parents when the storm passes and they will call everyone else to let you all know. Signing off now until the storm is over and we get back power. We will write a journal while the computer is off and God willing will have some great entries when this is all over.

God Bless, Be safe and Goodnight.

Love Scott and Katie

Nameless No More

The kitty above has been named Dean, for obvious reasons but also because he is the wild one of the bunch. His almost twin brother has been named Nick, because we needed something to go with Dean and Nick just fit :). Their sister has been named Princess, since we live just off Princess street and she is definitely more timid and prissy than her brothers. You can tell Dean because he is looking at the camera in the shot with Josie, and in the one with the two "twins", Dean is on the left and Nick is on the right.

Sunday 8:40 update

The winds have really picked up. We spent about an hour on the front porch of Kathleen and Keith as it got dark and watched the last three planes take off. The news says that they are down to only 1500 tourists now so the shelters wont be as full of them as it was looking earlier.

The whole neighborhood was out watching the clouds roll in a huge band winding from north to south. There were conversations across streets and everyone seemed to know this was the last time we will be out for the next 12-15 hours. Everyone is ready and resigned to what is about to happen. The storm is the size of Texas and no matter what we are going to be pounded and pounded for a good long while. We are completely done with preparations and our neighbors have given us really good words of encouragement. They are a good grounding for us; our imagination has tended to run away today with things like panicking over the small rain shower early in the afternoon. They reminded us everyone has done everything we can do and now it is in God's hands.

We have gotten to talk tonight on windows live with a lot of family and thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will continue to post until we lose power or feel like we have to disconnect.

Goodbye, God Bless, and Be Safe.

Scott and Katie

6:55 p.m. Curfew and Water Cutoff Announced

The government has announced a 10:00 p.m. curfew and the water authority first announced they would be cutting of water at 6:30 p.m. now that has been moved back to 9:00 pm. CUC the utility company is hoping to keep service up throughout but we will see. We are filling our upstairs tub now. Its tough because the calcium deposits have frozen the handle so only the shower works. We can't fill the downstairs one as in Ivan the sewage backed up and caused the downstairs tubs to overflow. We will stop up the downstairs toilet and tub before going to bed.

There is a palpable sense in our complex that things are improving. I spoke with Selkirk the owner of the complex and you could see the relief in his face as he mentioned the track pushing it south. But, in the same breath he said that things can change in an instant and we have to be prepared for the worst. Right now Cayman would only get a glancing blow with tropical storm winds but we will see.

I went outside to look at the clouds and you can see the circular motion so the outer bands have arrived. The sun is setting and the cloud movement is mesmerizing. The wind is strong but not difficult yet so a lot of people are outside to watch the sun go down. Almost as if to say good bye and hope to see you some time tomorrow after the storm passes. Everyone says be safe and God Bless that is the goodbye refrain of tonight.

So from here on out it's Be safe and God Bless to you all, will keep updating throughout night.

Love, Scott and Katie.

5:40 update

We are total newbies at this. Our place is completely put up, the furniture on cans and nothing loose. You can see the furniture up in the living room in the picture above with the boarded up window behind them. This is fast becoming an obvious overreaction this early. At 4:15 we went over to Kathleen and Keith's and they are all boarded up and we actually had to climb over a board that they have up over the door because it faces the road and opens in rather than out like the middle units. But once you get inside their house it looks completely normal. They haven't put away anything, taken down anything from their walls or moved their furniture or anything inside. It was very reassuring to see two people who went through the harrowing experience of Ivan being so calm. We drank some cranberry lime tea and talked about the Humane Society and just normal stuff. They laughed when we told them about what we had done to our place but said it was normal for people the first time to do what we are doing and it is better to overreact than under react.

The winds are blowing but no rain since the little shower at 1 p.m. The funny thing is because we are so boarded up we cant see anything so all we have is what our imagination tells us unless we want to open our door which isn't going to be an option soon. When we get our own place we want to get the hurricane shutters like our neighbors who have plastic in the shutter to see out in the middle. At least they can see what is going on.

We found out that over 108 flights have left the island in the last day but that they are having to move some 7000 tourists to shelters that they cant get off the Island. Reaffirms that we made the right decision not wasting our time at the airport yesterday or this morning waiting in long lines for planes we weren't going to get on when we have a safe place to ride it out and needed to get it prepared. We have seen the best in people, apparently at the airport they are seeing the opposite. The folks at the airport are fighting in line, literally throwing luggage at each other and generally displaying the worst of human traits as they wait to pack the flights with the few precious seats in each plane.

The important storm tracks will come after the storm is past Jamaica so hopefully the mountains in Western Jamaica will deflect it even further south. Keep an eye on the NOAA site it is the best one for updates.

Love to everyone,

Scott and Katie.

Best news yet

The latest track from NOAA is just out and posted below. Grand Cayman is the third Island from the right outlined in red. Keep praying it moves farther south. We are going over to Kathleen and Keith's for a little while to eat some snack food and maybe drink some adult beverages. Will be back by 5:00 p.m. to update assuming we have Internet. Love to you all.

Scott and Katie

3:00 p.m. update

Its encouraging that in 24 hours this will all be over one way or the other. The news continues to be a southward drift of the eye. Lets all pray that continues.

We have truly seen the best in people in the last three days as our neighbors and friends have banded together. It started on Thursday when a small but concerted group of people got an entire college wrapped up and moved into three rooms. It continued on Friday with a donation of 46 pieces of plywood to cover all the windows when there was no way the college could afford to purchase it or the labor that followed. We saw it yesterday in Lonny and his men riding to our rescue when we had no idea how to put up the plywood at our place and didn't have enough anyway. We have seen it in our neighbors Keith and Kathleen who told us where to move our car, who drove us to get gasoline and additional groceries today when we were vehicle less and we see it in every place where people are banding together to help each other get ready.

If there is one thing that has made us totally at peace with our decision to come to Cayman and work at ICCI it is the way everyone on this Island has banded together to help each other get through this. What an extraordinary thing to see. It is as strong a reminder as we could get that community is very important here and that the decision to come here was the right one.

Windy now but no rain. We have put all the furniture on cans and will post pictures later if possible. We are eating lunch late. Everything is upstairs and the very final preparations are all that is left and those wont happen until late tonight. We love you all.

Scott and Katie

First time jitters

Well that little band of rain has passed through pretty quickly and it is actually sunny out again. Our neighbors went inside for a few minutes and are back outside again now doing work. Fortunately we don't have much stuff and nothing outside while our neighbors with their elaborate yards and patios have much to do in their final preparations. They don't seem to be fazed by the winds and the rain was just a temporary annoyance. We are newbies and everything is fazing us. The latest NOAA track and the announcement on the Cayman Compass website is that the track is more favorable moving south so if that continues things wont be as bad as it looked yesterday. The difference between 80 mile an hour winds and 140 miles is pretty substantial and if it will just move south a little more (and not move north in its track at all) we will feel a little more secure.

Sorry for the false alarm. Will keep updating as long as Internet stays on.

Love you all.

Scott and Katie

1:00 p.m.

Starting to rain and wind has picked up a lot now. We are moving everything upstairs and making final preparations. If we lose internet we will try and get messages out as best we can. Thanks for all the e-mails of encouragement and conversations we have had this morning with family. We love you all.

Scott and Katie

Still nameless kittens

On a good note, we have the cutest kittens ever with us!

And so it begins....

While waiting for Scott to figure out what kind of oil we need for the generator, I asked Keith, "So when should we expect the outer bands of the storm to hit?" He looked at me funny, looked around a bit, then said in his Eastern London accent, "You're seeing it right now."

The winds have definitely picked up and all the palm trees are swaying around. It is a bit disconcerting since the eye of Dean is still 400 miles away. We made a trip to get gasoline and oil for the generator. The first gas station was already out of gas but we were able to find gas at the second station we went to with Kathleen. That station was out of oil so we will not be able to use our generator but have worked out a barter agreement with Kathleen and Keith that we will bring our gas and cook with them after the storm has passed.

Hurley's, the closest grocery store, was going to be open until 3 today but it has decided to only stay open till noon as we are already seeing the effects of the storm.

I asked our neighbor, Kathleen, whether or not we needed to hunker down in the bathroom during the storm (like one would during a tornado) or if it would be safe to be walking around the house since she had indicated that they were not going to raise any of their furniture until the water actually started coming into the house. It was reassuring to hear her say that, since we had boarded up the house, we would be safe walking around, unless our roof went.

The internet has started to slow down so we aren't sure how much longer we will have an internet connection. We haven't seen five bars since yesterday and are now moving between three and four bars (three is the minimum you need for a connection). We are now going to do the last of the preparations and will try to update the blog at least one more time.

It is sad that we were never able to do the grand tour of the house before Dean, but here are some pictures of the outside of the house now that it is all boarded up. Top to Bottom: The front of our unit (the complex has two of these units facing each other), the front of our place (we are the window/door on the left), and the back of our place (you can see the top of our patio doors and our upstairs window). Being one of the middle two units helps with everything (i.e. flooding and wind); our unit only got three inches of flooding in Ivan while some of them got almost a foot.