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from: http://www.cayman.org//ivan.html "As usual, it's Ham Radio that has come thru for many and the Hurricane Watch Net is active and can be heard on 'Shortwave' at 14.325 Mhz." During this state of emergency in the Cayman Islands, we have temporarily redirected all pages on our site to this central posting. Note: we are *not* a first-hand news source; this is a summary of other sources. The Cayman Islands have been struck hard by Hurricane Ivan. Grand Cayman has been hit worst, as the center of the storm passed within 20-30 miles of the south side of the island and the most severe winds appear to have covered the island for hours on end. Because the eye of the storm never actually passed over the island, the winds lasted for hours and hours and hours with no interruption, simply changing direction as the storm passed by to the south heading WNW. Terms used by those on-island to describe the damage are 'total devastion', 'catastrophic', 'war zone', and relate stories of massive flooding caused by a huge storm surge which flooded much, if not all, of the island. Most reports are second- and third-hand and there are naturally many rumors. Landline phones are down hard and incoming phone circuits are jammed by people trying to dial in. We urge people to not try to call Cayman unless they have emergencies or on-island families. Even so, it may prove very difficult if not impossible to establish contact and more attempted incoming traffic only makes it worse. An on-line resource at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caymanfamilies/ has been setup to assist friends and families to re-establish contact. Please use this *only* if you have friends or family on-island. Communications with Cayman after mid-day Sunday 12 September 2004, have been spotty at best, consisting mostly of occasional scattered out-going cell phone and satellite-based phones. Of course, with phone batteries starting to fail with all the use, even this line is stretched thin. Power and water were turned off intentionally by the authorities on Saturday evening to minimize damage and danger. CUC is working to restore power to George Town but it may be a long time before the rest of the island has power. We've seen one report that it may take a couple of months to do so, but ... again ...it's early on and there are many stories afoot. However, with reported serious problems at the water company, compounded by major flooding in all areas, water will most likely be a very serious problem for quite some time. The major media reports are shamefully few and far between. Reports on such outlets as CNN, BBC, Sky News, the Weather Channel seem to be mostly recycled news from before Saturday noon. As usual, it's Ham Radio that has come thru for many and the Hurricane Watch Net is active and can be heard on 'Shortwave' at 14.325 Mhz. The Cayman Islands Government site at www.gov.ky is down as are many if not all island-based internet resources. Most other official CI sites, such as the tourism site at www.caymanislands.ky and the Port Authority at www.caymanport.com/ which are based off-island, are not accessible from on-island and most have not been updated since Friday or early Saturday (=cayman.org= is not based on-island). The Port Authority WebCam and all public/private weather sites are no longer live. Weather observations from Owen Roberts Airport have not resumed since Saturday at 9pm local time. Weather images from several sources are still current at our sister site at www.caymanweather.com and hopefully the airport observations will resume soon. When they do, the automated updates will resume at the above URL. BTW: we have been saving NOAA and other images for a later gallery of the storm's hour by hour progress, but that will get done after everything else settles down. For the meantime see 'Weather Channel' image below for CPA (closest point of approach) TV capture. Despite the lack of on-island actual news coverage, their real-time storm tracking was a great help during at least the first half of the storm while we were relaying the info to Cayman by phone. This image was the last one we described before the phone service fell apart. Reports are that the several feet of flooding on the airport runway are resolving and there are hopes that the damage to the tower can be repaired to enable the start of incoming help and emergency supplies, perhaps sometime Tuesday. There are several private parties lined up with plane-fulls of supplies awaiting that opening. Cayman Airways is reported to also have supplies and materials waiting for that opening. Evryone is pulling together. We will post more news as it is received and verified (to the extent possible). We are looking for reliable links to give to people interesting in sending donations and will post those as soon as possible. This is a disaster. Cayman will need lots of help. However, once all rescue and support is finished, Cayman will rebuild, better than ever. The Cayman people are good, and strong, and they will prevail. More later. First (aerial, 13 Sept) pictures from GCM (from Yahoo News): a.. Ritz Carlton b.. two c.. Gardens of the Kai d.. Building with no roof e.. Pirate ship f.. six g.. Marina h.. eight i.. nine --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail Yahoo! 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