Archive for May 12th, 2011
HMCI advises public to prepare now for 2011 season
(CNS): With less than three weeks to go before the start of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, officials are urging the public to get prepared. Forecasters expect an active season and Hazard Management Cayman Islands said residents should now take steps to ensure they are ready. “When Cayman is impacted by a major hurricane, residents will likely find themselves without immediate access to supermarkets, gasoline, banks, running water, electricity and many of the services and resources they have grown accustomed to in their daily lives, HMCI Director McCleary Frederick pointed out.
He said that realistically, it could be a week or more before the flow of normal goods and services are restored if the country is impacted by a major cyclone. “Minimize your dependence on government, family or friends to support you in the aftermath of a storm, begin taking the steps needed to get prepared,” he said ahead of the National Day of Preparedness on Monday May 16.
Residents are urged to update their family plan, restock their first aid kit and supplies of non-perishable food on the designated day.
“If you have a generator get it serviced and check your shutters, sometimes rust and debris can accumulate in the tracks and this can make them hard to install," added McCleary.
Other suggestions include checking on insurance policies to ensure they are current, removing debris from the yard and trimming back trees.
Statistically September is the peak month of the hurricane season, but early and late season storms sometimes form in the western Caribbean. When this occurs (as was the case with Hurricane Paloma) the lead time for preparation can be short. "Don’t get caught out, set aside food and water for 5 to 7days,” the expert stated.
In the lead up to the National Day of Preparedness, members of staff from Hazard Management Cayman Islands have been handing out Hurricane Preparedness Information Kits on the weekends to customers at various local hardware stores. Participating stores include Cox Lumber Company, A.L. Thompson’s, Kirk Home Centre and Progressive Distributors.
“If you get ready now you reap the benefits later in the season! No battling traffic, no long lines at the stores, less tension and more peace of mind,” McLeary advised.
If you haven’t already received your information kit they are available at the HMCI Office at Cayman Corporate Centre or on the website www.caymanprepared.ky;
Spectacular and rare phenomenon caught on film
(CNS): An amateur photographer caught a rare and beautiful sight on Tuesday afternoon. This near perfect sun ring was captured at around 3pm at a condo complex on Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman. The halo or rainbow around the sun is, according to experts, caused by the scattering of sunlight by tiny ice crystals very high in the sky. High clouds of ice crystals high in the sky are called cirrus clouds or cirrostratus if they form a layer which form in front of warm fronts that bring rain. The fabulous photograph is by Carlos Ossorio
Save Cayman in push for poll
(CNS): The man leading the charge in the campaign to prevent government from dredging the North Sound said that he believes there is now a real possibility of achieving enough signatures to trigger a people initiated referendum. Capt Bryan Ebanks said the campaign has gained enormous support from the community. Despite the fact that many people feel they can’t sign the petition because they are civil servants who do not know if they are allowed to sign, many others have been willing to put their names to the cause. With plans for another major push on 21 May, Ebanks said that he hopes to encourage even more people to sign or become involved in the fight in some other way to save the North Sound and in turn the whole island.
Ebanks is opposing government’s proposal to create a channel in the North Sound for mega yachts as he says the risk of losing Stingray City and the Sandbar could be catastrophic for the country’s entire tourism product. Aside from the dangers cutting into the reef would present for West Bay and George Town, in the event of a major hurricane, Ebanks said, dredging would cause significant damage to the entire Sound.
Although the campaign has a wider goal of trying to persuade government to rethink the choices it makes about development in general, the primary motivation is to collect enough signatures to trigger a referendum specifically on the dredging of the channel before the premier makes any deals with developers.
“We have already collected around half the number we need, but we are now making another major push to get the rest,” said Ebanks. He said that he understood the difficulties some people felt they had signing given the ambiguity surrounding the situation with civil servants but he said people could help in other ways.
“Not everyone feels comfortable signing the actual petition,” he said. “We understand that and I would never say that people should do anything that would threaten their livelihood or their businesses but there are many other things that can be done behind the scenes.”
Given the amount of support there is for the campaign, Ebanks said one of the reasons why the petition has not reached the required 3,500 or so signatures yet is because of the manpower required in getting the signatures and collecting up petition sheets. He said he really needed anyone who supports the campaign but had to stay out of the limelight to come and help with the backroom work.
“We are really grateful to those people who have already been helping but we do need more hands on deck,” Ebanks said. “We cannot give up on this campaign, it is very important to all of us in Cayman. It’s not just about the West Bay boat captains that work in the Sound itself this is far wider, it affects everyone. The North Sound is an economy in its own right that trickles down throw the wider community and to lose it is unthinkable.”
The people initiated referendum, a concept introduced in the new 2009 constitution, is the only sure-fire way the people have to stop a government from going ahead with a specific course of action they oppose. The opposition cannot stop a government that has the full backing of its members and no amount of vocal objections or marches, or even the petition in its own right, can lawfully prevent government from going ahead with a legal proposal of its choosing.
However, Ebanks pointed out that triggering a referendum would enable every voter in the Cayman Islands to go to the poll and say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the channel and if more than half of those who vote say ‘No’, government is constitutionally obligated to respect that result and would not be allowed to dredge the channel.
“This is a powerful tool and we intend to use it as there simply is no other choice,” Ebanks added as he encouraged everyone who was against the proposal to dredge the Sound to get in touch and either sign the petition or come out and help in some other way.
Captain Ebanks can be contacted via email savecayman@gmail.com on 916 3048 or via the Save Cayman Facebook page.
More delays on budget debate
(CNS):The date for the state opening of the parliamentary budget session has been pushed back once again. Officials did not say why government has postponed the ceremonial opening a further three days but stated Wednesday that the date had been moved from Tuesday, 17 to Friday, 20 May. The premier is expected to deliver his strategic policy statement for the next fiscal year and reveal the details of expected operational expenses and earnings. Last week the premier issue directions to senior civil servants to finish this current fiscal year with a surplus in the wake of figures which revealed a potential year end deficit, but government has not said if this is the cause of the delay.
With no further borrowing allowed under the three year fiscal plan approved by the UK government last year in order to allow government to borrow in this financial year it will need to present a financial plan for 2011/12 that does not anticipate a deficit.
Speaking at a UDP public meeting on Tuesday evening McKeeva Bush who is also the finance minister and responsible for delivery the budget said that under the terms of that three year plan he is obligated to show and achieve a small surplus by the end of 2011/12. Bush indicated in his memo last week that the five of the $15million surplus he wanted for this year end would go towards this new budget.
The premier has said that government’s finances have been stabilized as a result of the work of his administration and that it had been successful in reigning in public spending.
Although government ministers have indicated there will be no fee cuts in the forthcoming budget it has not yet stated if there will be a need to introduce any new fees or taxes to ensure government makes its surplus or whether there will be further cuts in operational expenses.