More roads closed due to flooding as rain persists
(CNS) UPDATED 12:45pm: The RCIPS says that due to major flooding, a number of roads were closed at 11am today, Wednesday. They are Halifax Road, Huldah Avenue, Dorcy Drive, Bronze Road, Webb Road, Oak Mill Street and Seafarers Way (in the vicinity of Burger King Waterfront). In addition, small vehicles are currently prohibited on Hope Road. The police urge motorists to continue to drive cautiously as roads become hazardous when wet and to drive slowly to avoid displacing water into yards or homes.
The Cayman Islands Government will provide a live update today at 1:30pm on CIGTV’s YouTube and cable channels. Speakers will include Deputy Premier Andre Ebanks, Teresita Da Silva (Hazard Management Cayman Islands) and Gilbert Miller (Cayman Islands National Weather Service).
Updated weather bulletin 1:05pm: The Cayman Islands National Weather Services now says that Grand Cayman can expect up to 3.8 inches of rain today (Wednesday), while Cayman Brac and Little Cayman can expect up to 2.3 inches today. Winds will be 20-25 knots (23-29 mph) today, decreasing to 10-15 knots (12-17 mph) by Friday, and there will be rough seas with wave heights of 8-10 ft today, becoming 6-8 ft tonight, with further improvement by tomorrow.
A marine warning is in effect today through tomorrow morning. Residents should expect flooding in low-lying areas and avoid unnecessary travel, and mariners should seek and remain in safe harbour.
All government schools will remain closed today, Wednesday, 25 September, the Ministry of Education has said. And as heavy rain and flooding continue, non-essential staff in the civil service impacted by these conditions or school closures are permitted to work remotely today with manager approval. Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has said that essential services will continue as scheduled, and essential employees should report to work as usual.
This MoE said the decision to close the schools is based on current adverse weather conditions and consultations with Hazard Management Cayman Islands.
The public is urged to take precautions while moving around and avoid unnecessary risks.
Airports are scheduled to open at 7:00am as planned. However, the Cayman Islands Airports Authority said it will closely monitor weather conditions before every aircraft operation to ensure safety. Each airline will follow its own aircraft-specific weather protocols.
On Grand Cayman, the Airport Post Office, the General Post Office, and the Seven Mile Beach Post Office, as well as all post offices in Cayman Brac, will operate normal business hours today. All other post offices, including the Little Cayman post office, will remain closed.
The Department of Environmental Health (DEH) advises the public that all landfills are closed today. Residents are advised that the 24-hour drop-off site at the entrance of the George Town landfill remains open to facilitate the disposal of small amounts of waste from residential customers, if necessary. Landfill operations are expected to resume on Thursday, subject to further forecasts.
The Department of Vehicle and Driver’s Licensing (DVDL) has said that its offices are open today, but operations are currently limited. Vehicle inspections and road exams are not available at this time.
The Cayman Turtle Conservation and Education Centre (CTCEC) said Tropical Storm Helene caused only minor damage, and all animals and exhibits are safe. The centre is reopening today, Wednesday.
Helene has now moved away from the Cayman Islands. While rain caused flooding in several areas today, Cayman escaped relatively unscathed, given that the storm remained fairly disorganised as it passed through our area.
TS Helene is expected to pass the Yucatan Peninsula this morning with hurricane or near-hurricane strength. It is then expected to intensify and grow over the eastern Gulf of Mexico before heading to the western side of the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Big Bend, where it will likely make landfall as a major hurricane.
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Category: Science & Nature, Weather
Cayman must create the Residential Buildings Elevation Assistance and Flood Prevention in Low Lying Areas NATIONAL Programs.
Allocate substantial amount of money to these programs. Giving away cash to the neighboring countries is nice when everything is up to par at home. Otherwise it is criminal.
You can elevate houses in the low lying areas.
During the elevation process, most frame, masonry veneer, and masonry houses are separated from their foundations, raised on hydraulic jacks, and held by temporary supports while a new or extended foundation is constructed below. The living area is raised and only the foundation remains exposed to flooding.
In the US the FEMA FMA grant may pay 75%, 90% or 100% of the cost of elevation. Properties are inspected and a benefit-cost analysis done to determine property eligibility. Federal and State programs assist people with replacing doors, windows and strengthening roofs.
In Florida:
Homeowners can receive up to $10,000 on new Roofing and Windows with the My Safe Florida Home Program
The My Safe Florida Home program aims to assist eligible homeowners with free wind mitigation home inspections and matching grants for fortifying their homes against hurricanes.
Texas:
Homeowner Assistance Program:
-Repairing and rehabilitating homes
-Reconstruction
-Improving a damaged home so that it is stronger against natural disasters
-Elevating homes above flood level in conjunction with reconstruction assistance
-Temporary relocation assistance
There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING being done in Cayman to make properties resistant to natural disasters. It is not being planned either. Millions are wasted on anything and everything but making Cayman resilient to hurricanes, storms, flood, etc.
Nonsense, I have driven straight down Huldah Avenue three times already today, without issue.
This is another perfect reminder of why shortcutting due process, environmental and drainage studies can be seriously problematic – in effect, shuttering the economy for a period of time, due to recurring failure to account for normal seasonal conditions. Let’s hope nobody in these chronically affected communities needs EMS.
if schools are not flooded and parents and teachers are able to get to the school…why are the schools closed?
Because not all teachers/staff can make it in depending on where they live, and localized rainfall is not easy to predict.
A few days of home learning a year in an online environment is not going to kill you.
This impacts the vulnerable children the most. They will be left to their own devices while the wealthy families shower their children with private tutors and dedicated online studying.
CIG should be busing kids and teachers to school
If they wanted to, they could have made it in.
Because the masses usually do what the weakest have to do. The smartest will do what they want. The weakest will do what they want. All those in between will usually follow the weak to be sure. Human nature. Driving around with little traffic was great and less of a problem than usual. Stayed away from the areas that normally all ways flood and drove through or around the puddles that are always there after a big rain. Stay safe Cayman.
Grand Cayman has always flooded during a good “set rain”. Back in the 70s we missed school and paddled about in the flooded roads in our grandfather’s aluminum boat. Heavy rain and flooded roads in September and October are nothing new. The poster at 8.18am is correct. It is not the end of the world.
Just disgusting how governnents have not improved drainage but destructed the Islands’ natural plant life and wasted millions on their ‘toys’, mention ‘wishing well’, plenty water in there to keep wishing!
where exactly is the water going to drain to? I think you lot have a very misguided belief of how storm drains work.
The rain water can take its time. On the main thoroughfares, which flood with every rain, there exist modular, temporary marsh ramps and bridges that could allow an extra few feet of safe passage, above the basin area, until the district MLAs direct the NRA to raise these constituent roads, and deploy the Regiment to sandbag homes. It’s odd that the RCIPS feels they need to make comments about safe road passage and not the NRA or the concerned District MLAs, whose job it is to serve their voting pubic. Next rain, we’ll hear the same deflections…
Note that the OP said “drainage”. that doesn’t just mean dee / “storm drains”.
Lets just say that you’re both right and what is needed is area drainage plans – and improvements – to channel the water that we all know is coming every so often. (And maybe make sure that buildings & infrastructure are above the rising flood levels.)
..’you lot’..? Have rain on the brain or just a brain drainage in ‘your lot’.
‘You lot’ – read ‘Man-made wetlands may be needed to manage increasing flood threat’ in today’s Compass, may tame your arrogance.
YOU elected them!
No I did not, dumb, dumb!
There are many places in the world with more rain and close to the ocean that don’t have flooding with every big rainstorm. Florida is a good example. Cayman islands have areas that always flood, is flooded right now, and will flood in the next big rain. That will never change for obvious reasons.
Realistically we are once again fortunate that the forecast didn’t occur. We received much less rain, wind and waves than expected, especially on Monday afternoon.
However there was a chance that the forecast models could have been incorrect in the opposite direction. If we had been slammed with tropical storm conditions on Monday afternoon then everyone would be up in arms that precautions were not taken.
I don’t think there was a systemic process by HMCI and other parts of CIG to give everyone a day off work. They were trying to make sure everyone was safe and that we didn’t end up with a cluster-fuk situation on the roads Monday afternoon.
Prevention is better than cure. predicting a storm is not a perfect science, that system could easily have intensified within hours of the kids being in school then you would have mayhem on the flooded roads. we all have the luxury of saying ‘I told you so’ after the fact.
They equate prediction with preparedness.
Preparedness starts with fundamental changes: permanently reinforcing houses to withstand storm surges, wind, flood.
In Florida there is MySafeHome program that assists people with making their houses resilient to natural disasters. Florida Governor DeSantis has added condos to the list of properties eligible for free inspection on hurricane resilience and financial assistance to mitigate deficiencies…roofs, windows, doors.
The Cayman strategy is: prediction, schools/offices closure and a prayer.
Florida has over 22 million residents, if DeSantis can milk an extra $10 from each person per year he has a nice fund to put towards make homes resilient. tell me how much will our cost of living go up to achieve the same?
Nice try.
How many houses in Cayman need reinforcements, elevation and other repairs?
Cayman has so much available cash that they load a plane with it and travel around giving it away to whomever they wish. L•I•T•E•R•A•L•L•Y
The good thing about this, is that at least the kids dont have to mandatory worship other peoples god.
Concerning actually learning stuff, may I suggest youtube.
Decades of rain and flooding and nothing is being done about it.
Take a day off, you crank.
Monday’s decisions looking even more stupid now than they did then.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
the dogs in the street knew monday was going to be fine.
The chickens too.
As is common sense.
A bit of balance to all the comments.
Yes, Monday was not the time to be closing schools down, and therefore impacting most of the economy here. Tuesday, yes it made sense. A good number of schools here are not safe or pleasant places to be during extreme rain. Today, see previous sentence. It would be much more palatable, if Monday hadn’t been unnecessary. The considerations here are logistics, too. Many roads flood easily, and the infrastructure in terms of pavement and bus shelters is lacking.
Cue the, “in my time we lived in swamps.” comments.
For transparency, I’m not a civil servant.
Lots of ignorant postings.
The safety of the children is paramount. How would the children get home during severe flooding which happens quickly in several areas?
So sorry you are supposedly so dedicated to your work that you put that above all else.
Easy. The severe flooding wouldn’t happen because our civil service will have applied our laws and ensured natural drainage while preventing the construction and issuance of Certificates of Occupancy to houses built in swamps.
This is rain. It is not a storm. The waters are not fast flowing. There is no debris. This problem is man-made.
The same people who refuse to accept we need mangroves are those most suffering. It is of our making and has little to do with rainfall, and much to do with greed and poor planning.
And those who are ‘most suffering’ are probably those who elect idiots.
a lot of these people hate being with their children. they would have loved if they could stay home but the kids go to school.
Joyful soul.
There is still a puddle in road near spot bay school. It is very irresponsible to reopen the school under these conditions. Give it another day or two to clear up.
Thank you.
Can HMCI please tell me why they were shut?
what do they DO anyway?
Spread unnecessary government mandated fear and panic primarily.
How do you mean, shut? it’s not like a retail store.
I’m 99% sure they were working from the 911 control room, monitoring the situation on the ground.
Think of it like catching a flight. It’s not just the captain and their crew flying a plane. There’s all the support needed, like fueling, check in, engineer inspections, maintenance etc…but you already know that and I’m sure you’re just sticking in a barb or two to people who have no time or inclination to respond.
I guarantee OP doesn’t live in a flooded street.
Are they nuts? Have they even looked outside? We need at least the rest of this week off
Why were they closed in the first place?
You were obviously not around for Grace!
I obviously was, and I was at work then too, while you were home in your Snuggie no doubt.
being at work and doing work is 2 different things. did the boss give your a magical cookie for turning up to work during Grace?
Obvious? The only thing obvious is your loud and proud stance that work is your God.
Get a life. Try reading a book for enjoyment or watching the lovely sunsets or…
Grace? The TS/borderline hurricane that we knew was going to hit us as at least a high TS and maybe a hurricane so acted accordingly? Whereas this “Potential Tropical Cyclone 9” that at worst was going to just squeak into TS levels and at no point was going to hit us? Struggling to see the link. Are we going to close down the Island now for any heavy rainfall?
Grace was not expected to be a borderline hurricane hence all the damage.
It was forecast to be a high grade tropical storm with hurricane force gusts, from over 2 days out. I would say that is probably there or thereabouts when saying something is a “borderline hurricane”. Perhaps your expectations and definitions are different from everybody else’s.