Here's an update, with some photos taken on the Brac yesterday; passing them along.
-hh
Cayman Brac
General conditions appear to be debris on roads, wires down, some roof damage...but no roofs completely lost. There's trees down, fences, shingles blown off, etc. Water damage on homes on the Southside, but nothing flattened.
ALSO: contrary to one isolated claim heard so far, there has been no evidence so far of any roads on the Brac being "breached" (ie, pavement undercut & washed away). There have of course been flooded spots, as well as sections where debris (including coral rubble & sand, as well as downed trees and wires) have blocked the road's passage, but that's not a 'breach'.
Brac photos
Typical road 'debris':
Southside-
Brac Reef 'Cabana' portion of Dock (damaged, but not gone):
Southside-
Brac Reef - Reef Divers main dock area ("half" gone; still room to bring 2 boats in):
Southside-
Divi Dock (gone):
Southside-
Grounded Diveboat (I think its the Deja Vu?):
Northside-
Brac's "Radar Reef" groin & boat ramp ... no wood here to rip up:
The UK warship HMS Iron Duke is now anchored off Cayman Brac, to
provide aid to the Sister Islands, and HMS Wave Ruler (supply ship) is
headed for Grand Cayman.
Brac power is restored from the power plant east to Spot Bay (all northside), according to the Government, but residents to the west of the power plant in Stake Bay report getting power back yesterday noon.
Water is down awaiting system check, Gerard Smith airport is receiving flights (probably limited flights).
Little Cayman:
No photos yet; limited communications. Generally all power still down, extensive amounts of road blockages from trees & power lines.
Verbal Report: loss of roof on the bank, and the hardware section of the grocery store...from another source, statement was: "Village Square has lost its roof".
Via a helicopter survey (from the HMS Iron Duke), "every dock" on Little Cayman was either severely damaged or destroyed. "All diveboats" were reported to have been missing from their dock/moorings, and "4-5 dive boats" were reported to have been observed to have been washed ashore (somewhere). Also commented on apparently extensive roof damage being broadly observed (a generalized statement).
Mr. Scott was quoted in the press as saying: "The south road along Little Cayman has been breached by sand and rock in six to seven areas and there is also a fair amount of flooding on the road".
In this context, its unclear if Mr Scott is referring to a blocked road or a true breach, particularly since this was an air survey. In 2004, Ivan did both "breeches" and "blocks", such as on sections of the Southside road east of the resorts (towards Tarpon Pond). I personally recall that there's also some road sections quite close to the water on the North side near Jackson's that probably went underwater, as wave action on the north side wasn't perfectly calm either...see Radar Reef photo, above.
Still no casualties reported for either island; the best news of all.
-hh
