Flooding continues as development hinders drainage
(CNS): More heavy rain is expected across the Cayman Islands this week, and officials have issued another flood advisory for Wednesday and Thursday. Over-development and very poor drainage management have made flood-prone areas on Grand Cayman even more susceptible. In addition, heavy downpours are increasingly impacting areas that previously rarely flooded and quickly recovered if they did because undeveloped areas soaked up the water.
Cayman is no stranger to heavy rains at this time of year, but as climate change fuels king tides and development undermines nature’s ability to soak up water, flooding is becoming more of an issue.
However, successive governments have persistently ignored warnings about the desperate need for a comprehensive stormwater management plan. Instead, they have maintained the process of piecemeal approval of drainage on development sites by the CPA, which is wholly inadequate. Despite their empty claims about sustainable development, no plan to tackle the issue has been put forward.
National Roads Authority Director Edward Howard recently said there were concerns about managing the floodwater because of the amount of development. “As we continue to develop, we are losing a lot of the natural storage areas and, in many cases, we are replacing these water-catchment areas with impermeable surfaces,” he admitted.
Calling the flooding “a significant challenge”, Howard said the ministry was “working to get the stormwater management committee reconstituted and to update the stormwater laws and regulations”. However, he said there was “a lot of work to be done and, of course, these things take time and funding”.
The heavy rain expected this week is due to a developing system in the Caribbean Sea which the US National Hurricane Center has given a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression within the next week as it moves through this area. Environmental conditions could support some gradual development of the disorganised showers and thunderstorms this week or at the weekend while it moves generally northwestward.
Regardless of development, the system is expected to bring significant rainfall and thunderstorms to Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands, exacerbating the ongoing flood problem caused by the passage of Helene last week.
Up to four inches of rain is expected for Grand Cayman and up to two for the Sister Islands. Residents can expect moderate winds at approximately 15-20 knots with higher gusts, and periods of locally heavy showers with lightning and thunder.
Today’s rain is expected to decrease from late afternoon with a 40% chance of showers overnight. However, flooding is possible today over low-lying areas. Cloudiness and showers are expected to increase along with fresh southeasterly winds and moderate seas from tomorrow morning, as the disorganised system edges closer to these islands.
Sand will be available from noon, and staff will be available to help fill bags from 2:30-4:30pm at the following sand stations: Frank Sound Fire Station, West Bay Fire Station, Linford Pierson Roundabout, and the Agricultural Grounds.
Listen to the weather update from CINWS Senior Forecaster Gilbert Miller:
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Category: Science & Nature, Weather
My neighbours are literally flooding me out when it rains. I understand that newer houses should be built higher due to rising sea levels etc, but there should be something put in place to assist those who will be affected before building is allowed to go ahead.
Development approved by a semi-autonomous PLA, without drainage/transport/utilities studies, or plans. This is what we get.
“without drainage/transport/utilities studies, or plans.”
Incorrect, there is a warehouse full of these consultation reports that our Govt has gleefully ignored for the last 40yrs.
1. Rising ocean temperatures are expanding the water in our area of the planet at a faster rate in the mean sea level in other parts of the planet, and the combination of warm waters, impacting the sea life that makes the sand that holds back the sea is now being felt more here than it was in the past.
2. Storm action and development setbacks are changing the interplay between the sea and number one above, which was not an issue as much in the past
3. There is a shortage of companies drilling deep wells to drain excess flood water, and a lack of enforcement to force the same. In the old days, you had many more deep wells per square foot of development and these days you rarely see a drill truck out on the road before storm season… We’ve gotten complacent and forgotten how valuable those trucks are drilling and maintaining the Wells.
4. This country was built on a Republican development mindset, more similarly found in the southern US. For whatever reason it’s becoming more of a liberal environmentalist hotbed, which is really quite dangerous for economy and culture here. Especially when combined with the lack of stormwater management in number three above.
This makes as much sense as a football bat.
When is Cayman news service actually going to get it right with its headlines and story angles. How about :
“Rising sea levels caused by everyone else in the world, threatens Cayman coastline, environmental arm of cayman govt is willing to acknowledge reality and create practical solutions to help Beachfront landowners Protect themselves from the rising Sea”.
(perhaps too long or it doesn’t fit the narrative here, but that’s going to be the reality within the next few years. Outcome? Everybody moves away and the money leaves and the dumb, broke people left here, wonder why there are no jobs and where it all went wrong.
In life, there are people who make it happen, people who watch it happen and people who wonder what happened. I see a lot of the last class on this forum.
Because over development with no plan is the major cause. Building over the natural wet lands means the water has no where to go
Why is this an issue all countries in the world develop. You just need to produce a path for water to go till it reaches the sea. You know that natural thing that surrounds us? We have excavators and pipe, simple. We have engineers? Use them
Too simple. We have Ken Dart investing billions here and providing jobs and propping up middle class to feel like politicians convincing them that we are special and different and we don’t have to work or Come up with practical real world solutions. We have the luxury of a benevolent benefactor investing here at any cost. Ironic, because the darts didn’t get here by suffering, fools and failing to rise to challenge and help themselves
Filling in natural floodplain areas, lackadaisical civil engineering and enforcement for floodplain management, electronic fund transfers go brrrrrrrrrrrrr.
This is a wildly inaccurate and irresponsible article and comment from the NRA.
Developments approved by cpa require that storm water is managed on the site and does not run off on the adjacent roads or properties.
Before all the downvotes come: the NRA requires an engineer to test that the storm water management systems on the site are draining at the rate required. They also inspect that the driveways and elevations have a hump in them to prevent spillover onto the roads.
The NRA claiming that their roads not draining is the fault of development is categorically false since they themselves test developed sites for adequate storm water drainage. CNS echoing that falsehood is equally inappropriate.
The reality is (as CNS justly points out) is that governments have had no storm water plan for decades. The NRA doesn’t handle the drainage or elevations of its own roads properly and there are a number of OLDER developments that have zero drainage and actively drain back onto the road.
I know everyone loves their scape goat and all the armchair experts are gonna let me have it. But like it or not, current developments don’t have a thing to do with the roads flooding. Crappy road design does.
Nice dream. Now wake up to the reality.
Disingenuous at best. Both are true. Filling in nature’s floodplains have consequences.
The first guy/girl was correct. You’re aware that once a floodplain or swamp or whatever has a certain amount of standing water on it that the only further retention of water is what sits on top of the existing level and “raises” the level of the swamp right….drainage on new development have wells that go down sometimes over 100ft or more to get that water down.
Think about it…bunch of rain comes…developed property has a bunch of water on it…rain stops…water drains. Where is the runoff? When a property has run off you can literally watch it during the storm. Go check out any relatively new (past 10-15yrs) development (commercial or residential) during a storm. They’re not running off. They’re draining.
That means the drainage in those spaces is just as good if not better than what was there before. Full stop.
The truth is the NRA doesn’t want any accountability for their failures.
The easy answer to the question is: what’s more likely, that private industry builders are making flooding properties or that a government agency isn’t doing its job?
good point…look at all the roads that flood and then look for newer developments. Red Bay/Omega bay is really bad and there’s nothing of significance built there in years.
Tell that to the developers of the Lotus development- the rain water drains straight from their car park on to the private road, which now floods
What “private road” are you talking about? Canal Point drive?
Make a complaint to them and show the runoff comes from their property which is very easy to do if that’s the case.
They have a civil obligation to correct it and everyone on that road has plenty of money to sue the developers. Quit your bitchin.
By the way it can probably be fixed by adding one or two wells in their parking lots which costs about $5000.
Make it happen and stop complaining. Keyboard warriors
Oh Bwoy, Mistah Tim not going to like that, no Suh.
NRA. “World Class”. Give them all a Franzie.
so I am commenting here purley through my observations, not stating facts.
Hope Road (actually sign posted as Hope Drive)
was closed due to excessive flood waters.
These wells, according to the NRA, are maintained at regular intervals.
absolute trash talk, I have never seen a vac pump or a blowout rig to clear these, before storm season, they only appear after the fact…I’ve stayed in this area for 20+ years
NRA builds the new airport bypass and the section through industrial park floods with every rain shower. Nice work.
who didn’t see this coming.
Even Stevie Wonder could see this failure
send the National Cone Authority, it will fix it in no time
Crown the bloody roads!
Maybe now you will stop filling in ponds!
Quite the opposite, when we fill in all the ponds there will be far less flooding.
Was that sarcasm?
Ah yes, the #worldclass NRA who have managed to screw up drains that worked perfectly well for years in areas where there has been zero new development. Let’s take our advice from them.
Most of this flooding is not caused by rain but by (possibly criminally) inept bad governance. We are going to drown in our #worldclassness.
Most of this flooding has been caused by water.
Except for the flood of immigrants.
Kaboom 💥!
Nope. There has always been water. This flooding is definitely the result of incompetence.
“Most of this flooding has been caused by water.”
Correct! Flooding involves water!
Give this person a medal!