Storm Update #3

Hurricane Gustav passed over us the night between Friday and Saturday. I awoke just after midnight to the sound of winds howling. It was some very substantial winds, but I am guessing the sustained wind force was no more than 70-80 km/h, with gusts significantly above that (say 100 – 120 km/h). The palm trees were clearly taking a beating with their crowns flying in a ball with tail formation. Below is a satellite image showing Gustav passing over the Cayman Islands.

Only casualty in our complex was a snapped tree trunk. At the height of the storm we lost power in our area. According to one eyewitness there was a massive blue flash of lighting behind one of the buildings in our complex around midnight.

In the morning we were still without power. But the winds had died down considerably. For those of you familiar stormy weather in Denmark, it was like a warm version of a rough and gusty winter storm. By the time we had done some wave watching and beach combing to keep the kids occupied, the electricity company had managed to restore electricity and life was pretty much back to normal.

We were lucky on Grand Cayman avoiding the grunt of Gustav. The sister islands: Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were not as lucky and appear to have suffered more damage. Below is a picture of a fallen power pole.

However, the hurricane season is far from over. The Atlantic seems to be brewing more storms for the Caribbean region and the National Hurricane Centre in Miami is monitoring other weather systems moving westward from the African coast. Ike has a good chance of becoming a large hurricane showing a large and very intimidating circulation, with plenty of heavy thunderstorm activity. While Ike’s sister, Josephine (AKA 99L), looks likely to form just off the coast of Africa on Tuesday.

UPDATE: Below is a image showing all four tropical weather systems currently in our waters. Starting to the far left is the remainder of Gustav (TD), then we have Hanna (TS) close to Cuba followed by Ike (TS) and finally Josephine (TD).