Hurricane Emily

This is all quite surreal....seriously, it has kind of a "pinch me so I can wake up" feel about it. Living and working in Cayman is really about as close to paradise as you can get, but the last 10 months have been horrendous, truly.

First of all in late August we had Hurricane Charley, yes, just a Category 1 storm, but the nearest thing to a storm to hit Cayman since Gilbert 16 years prior. Oh, and three weeks later a young hooligan called Ivan came and "mash up de place".

So, we just get things fixed up and Hurricane Season rolls around again. So, no worries, we say, nothing much ever happens until September or October, right ? Wrong... last week we had Dennis think about coming to say hi, and now Emily.... developing quickly and moving fast, already a major Hurricane and on track (as of the update half an hour ago at 11pm EDT) forecast to come within 60 miles of Grand Cayman... that is WAY too close for comfort.

Looking in some detail at the latest information on the US NHC website, the storm did "jog" further south (as we are hoping) the last few hours, but the weather gurus/soothsayers/con artists (take your pick, we kinda lost faith in them with Ivan!) have actually moved the forecast line further North, ie close to us.

Anyway, their "probabilities" (don't bet at Vegas with their odds) still have only a 26% chance of Hurricane strength winds actually coming within 65 miles (ie in real damage causing range) of Grand Cayman... but local knowledge tells you that we won't really know until it passes close to the South Coast of Jamaica, which would normally push it further South.

If it is any more than about 75 miles south of Grand Cayman when it passes, we will get some serious waves on the South Coast (whoops, my house is about 15o yards from the South Coast... better caulk the doors!), but other than that not much wind damage.... so fingers crossed for us !

Best case scenario, it shifts to 100+ miles South and we get some wind overnight on Saturday night, then life gets back to normal on Sunday morning..... we hope !