More on Ivan and Cayman

The St. Petersburg Times has a fact-ful and fairly comprehensive article detailing the effects of hurricane Ivan on Grand Cayman and the progress of recovery over the past year. The picture accompanying the article is a backside view (or frontside, depending on your perspective) of the same location photographed here. Excerpts:

Winds of 155 mph moved just south of Grand Cayman, which is about 26 miles long, seven miles wide and home to about 35,000. With a wind field that expanded to 85 miles, the entire island was smashed. The storm surge brought a wall of water 10 feet high on land. About 12 inches of rain fell.

"Most of the island was covered in water," said Andrew Bacon..."There were rumors about the island disappearing from radar because of so much water."
...

"Cell phones worked until about 5 in the morning and I remember calling Monica in the States. We had had about six hours of the most horrendous winds. I said, 'Well, listen, the house has held up pretty good. I think we've weathered it pretty good.'

She said, 'It's not even there yet.' I remember the chill I got in my body.

A few hours later, it hit into full gear."

And finally, this one struck a cord personally:

"We were all without electricity and water in the beginning and as a safety measure, we had a curfew. I remember lying in bed one night, next to an open window and trying to be very still in the stifling heat. The night sky was pitch black (there was no artificial light from signs or streetlamps) and the stars were brilliant - diamonds on black velvet."

I spent four days on the island following the hurricane and it is the nightimes, with the curfew and no electricity, that I recall most vividly: beauty, tranquility, and misery, all in one package. Link