Gustav slams Sister Islands

(CNS): As the outskirts of Hurricane Gustav slamed across the Sister Islands on Friday evening there were about 360 people already in the three Brac government shelters – the Aston Rutty Civic Centre, the Brac Day Care Centre and West End Primry School as the island lost power around 5pm. Over on Little Cayman13 people took refuge in the shelters.

An an additional 30 or so people were alos at the Seamen and Veterans’ Centre, which is an unofficial hurricane shelter, on the Brac, with more people arriving as storm force winds picked up across the island.

District Commissioner Ernie Scott told CNS around 2:00 pm that all was relative calm but that he was a little concerned about the level of complacency among residents. However, conditions were rapidly deteriorating at that time and the Brac was already experiencing tropical storm winds, and he thought people were beginning to take it more seriously.

In the Aston Rutty Medical Wing, Medical Officer in Charge Dr Srirangan Velusamy (left with Paramedic Vanderlinde Dilbert) said Faith Hospital had been closed and there were two hospital patients and two near term pregnant women in the Medical Wing of the Civic Centre. Eight clients from the Community Care Programme had also been transported to the shelter but they had decided not to evacuate the Kirkconnell Community Care Centre next to the hospital for Gustav.

A tree, weakened by a rotten core, had blown down on top of a car on the Bluff and taken the power line with it, and elsewhere there was some debris appearing on roads, as the Brac started to experience the effects of Gustav. (Left: people settle in for the night at the Aston Rutty).

On Little Cayman, Larry Foster the district officer reported that at 4:30 there were 13 people housed in the Government shelter there.