Getting ready for Beryl’s approach

Caymanian Times Publisher spoke with Cayman Islands National Weather Service Director General John Tibbetts and Dani Coleman, Director of Hazard Management Cayman Islands, about preparations for Hurricane Beryl.

Dani Coleman said that government was ready to go as far as preparations were concerned in the lead up to Hurricane Beryl’s possible impact on Wednesday and they were also working hard to ensure the public was likewise fully prepared. Meetings had taken place on Monday at a high level and the NRA and Public Works Department were working together to ensure sand was being made available for people to use for sand bags. Sandbags were being targeted for the most vulnerable communities, Ms Coleman said, and they were working with MPs to ensure the most vulnerable had them.

She acknowledged that there was a lot of work ahead of her department.

“The same amount of work and preparations go into a Cat 5 as they do a tropical storm,” she confirmed. “We wouldn’t want to be caught off guard.”

Mr Tibbetts said at the time of the interview Hurricane Beryl had just passed through Grenada with 150mph winds. They had been monitoring the system from the time it was a tropical wave since it was out east in the Caribbean and had watched it develop.

“Everybody is looking at thing in amazement,” he said. “It is ground breaking in that we don’t usually get Cat 4 hurricanes at this time of the year. Usually storms that occur in June are weaker in nature. You might get a Cat 1, but certainly not a Cat 4, so we weren’t expecting that level.”

The system was moving WNW at about 20mph and was forecast to weaken as it approaches Jamaica and then the direction has it skirting around 125 miles south of Grand Cayman, he said. That put Grand Cayman within the arc that would receive tropical storm force winds. The sister islands were on the outer fringes of it, just outside the range of tropical storm force winds, so it looked as if the sister islands were going to be spared.

“The track has really been dancing north and south so we really need to get a handle on exactly where this storm is going to,” he stated.

Trust the experts

Mr Tibbetts said the public should beware of “armchair experts” who were not qualified to post information, especially when they scare-mongered about estimated wind gusts that were unlikely in the Western Caribbean, where the storm was expected to weaken.

Ms Coleman said that it depended on the magnitude of the storm as to how many shelters would eventually open. All were ready to open and all staff manning them were fully trained, she confirmed. They are working closely with Fosters for extra supplies if they need them.

“The system is very well versed. We have rehearsed it over and over again so everybody can sustain it,” she said, stating that the staff were all prepared to go when the storm hits and afterwards doing post work such as damage assessment etc.

Keep vigilant

Mr Tibbetts said that he was concerned that if Beryl missed Cayman, people would be too complacent about another storm coming later in the year following the same track.

“If you come with that mindset, you might be caught in a very compromised position,” he worried. “Each storm is different.”

The fact that the storm looked as if it was weakening as it was coming into the western Caribbean was highly unusual.

Ms Coleman said they were so many variables to storms, and people needed to take into consideration many differences to the island in comparison to 20 years ago when Ivan hit. There was new development on island, as well as a lot more people on the island, which made for variables from a human, scientific and geographical perspective.

What to expect

The rainfall forecast was just 3 to 6 inches which was quite unusual, Mr Tibbetts said, as he expected more, but the fact that Cayman was already saturated didn’t bode well for Cayman. The system was going to be close to Hurricane Grace, he believed.

The system was expected to be a Cat 1 to 2 passing to the south of Cayman so still quite different to Grace which was an intensifying when it hit Cayman.

Ms Tibbetts said the National Hurricane Centre was expecting a surge of between 6-9 feet along with the hurricane as it was currently, and Cayman was expecting about 5 feet of storm surge. He said they had been advised that the storm surge, combined with the wave action, would possibly see wave heights from 17 to 21 feet. Tides had been running high so that added to the complication but the storm was coming in on a low tide. The bulk of the impact from storm surge would be on the south coast, he believed.

Ms Coleman said it was essential that people had their family hurricane plans in place, especially for children and pets.

“We just want to make sure everybody is ready to go no matter what this week holds,” Ms Coleman stated.

Ms Coleman wants people to download the National Emergency Notifications system App to be found at https://nens.gov.ky/  so they could keep up to date on everything that was happening.

Mr Tibbetts said that Cayman would be on the backside of the storm some time on Thursday when it would be south west of Cayman, so by that time the tropical storm force winds would have subsided.

Ms Coleman said the all clear as based on the weather, damage assessment, road issues, medical transportation issues, and so forth.

“Please don’t come out unless you really have to in the first few hours. Keep informed and make sure you know your hurricane flags and you’re constantly tuned into official sources,” she advised.