The risk posed by Hurricane Melissa to the Cayman Islands has fallen, according to the Cayman Islands National Weather Service, but authorities say they are closely monitoring the situation.
Speaking at a 5:15pm media briefing on Saturday afternoon, Kerry Powery, acting director general for the CINWS, said he was concerned about the rapid intensification of Hurricane Melissa, which gained hurricane status early Saturday afternoon. He added that while the risk to the Cayman Islands had been alleviated, “we don’t want to let our guard down … we are still mindful that changes can happen”.
Powery said that more intensification of the hurricane was expected and that Melissa was expected to reach the south coast of Jamaica as a major hurricane Tuesday morning.
Any deviation further west was likely to bring more severe weather closer to the Cayman Islands, which could be a concern, he said – with greater risk of heavy rain and localised flooding.
Swells from Hurricane Melissa have already started to come ashore in West Bay and the north coast of Grand Cayman and are expected to build over coming days.
Path hard to predict
“This storm has been a rather difficult storm to predict, due to its slow speed and changes in direction,” he said, urging the community to monitor official channels for information.
Dani Coleman, director of Hazard Management Cayman Islands, said HMCI has been working closely with relevant departments about how the Cayman Islands can assist – including with the National Emergency Operation Centre Tactical Coordinating Group, as well as the UK and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and HMCI’s counterpart in Jamaica, ODPEM.
Said Coleman, “We’re very confident that, even if something dramatic did change over the next few days, there’s not much more we could have done. We’re ready.”
Ready to help Jamaica if needed
When it came to helping Jamaica, which is forecast to get the greatest impact from Hurricane Melissa, Coleman said that in the past, help has been given in the form of a relief package, including financial assistance.
While she said that the Cayman Islands would wait to see what was required in the aftermath, she said that items such as sanitation kits, tarpaulins, cleaning kits and so on could be supplied if needed.
“We’re looking to see what kind of plan we can put in place, depending on what the devastation is,” she said. “I suspect there will be decisions made about that in the next day or two … but we need to wait for what the request is”.
Coleman said that bodies such as the CINWS and Cayman Islands Coast Guard were talking to their Jamaican equivalents and that lots of preparation had been done in hurricane response with the eight-day Event Horizon exercise in January this year.
As far Cayman was concerned, she said that so far there had been no signs of shortages of either food or essential items and no signs of panic-buying. She added that sandbag stations would be open from 9am until 5pm for anyone who wanted to collect them, and hurricane shelters were prepared to open if needed.
Flights cancelled
Kingston airport will close from 8pm on 25 Oct. due to the path of Hurricane Melissa, leading to the cancellation of the following Cayman Airways flights:
- Sunday 26 Oct. – Flights KX608 & KX609
- Monday 27 Oct. – Flights KX600 & KX601
- Tuesday 28 Oct. – Flights KX602 & KX603
Cayman Airways said in a statement that affected passengers will be placed on future flights when the safe resumption of service is possible, and asked that travellers make sure their ticket reservations have the correct email address and phone number to be reached with flight updates.
Customers can manage their bookings via www.caymanairways.com or by calling Cayman Airways Reservations on 949-2311 in the Cayman Islands or 866-759-1372 toll free in Jamaica.