Post Hurricane Paloma

4:00am
I've just woken up and am still half asleep but the calmness is eerie. After a night of noise, which I did sleep right through, I was woken up by the calm and the quiet. Yes, I have heard of that happening. And man is it quiet. And dry as well. My first thought is that the eye of the storm is passing over us, a period when it's eerily calm, before the second half of the hurricane makes an appearance. Of course I dare not go out to check, as much as I want to so I log on to the Hurricane websites I normally check and am surprised to see the Hurricane has moved away completely from Grand Cayman. Mark over at First Time looks like he's been up all night and has said on his blog that the storm went to the South instead of over Grand Cayman. That's the second time we've been lucky in terms of avoiding a direct hit. The sister islands are not so lucky at the moment as you can see, Paloma is poised to make a direct hit. When I asked him about hurricane season being over, RI over at Revolution Island reminded me that today is the anniversary of the deadly 1932 Hurricane, so I am really hoping and sending out lots of good wishes and prayers to the sister islands. For now I am heading back to bed and am hoping the water is turned back on when I awake a few hours later. You know for sure I'll be making the rounds and snapping up post Paloma effects, so please stay tuned.

10:26am
We are up. It's a little cloudy but dry and there's a gentle breeze. We're out to do a little damage control.

11:30pm
Today was such a hot and beautiful day. I couldn't believe what a difference a day makes when only yesterday we were fighting off rain and wind as we picked up last minute supplies and later on stayed in hoping that the storm would pass us by with little incident.

We did drive around to snap up some shots and this time I wanted to target a different spot than we did for Hurricane Gustav. We hit a public beach on Seven Mile and then later a drive through Georgetown. The beach was wonderful to be at, the smell of the ocean was so refreshing and even more so was watching the little kids enjoy the gorgeous day post hurricane. It was hot enough for many to soak up some sun and walking along the beach, listening to the waves crash made us realise how truly lucky we are to be able to live in a place like this. Sure we have to deal with hurricanes, but look at what we are rewarded with in the end. It's all about perspective..right?

Driving around Georgetown, the most apparent damage that one could see was flooding (as you can see in the collage here. Some signs were also 'affected' but I think that's about it. Cayman was very fortunate with this hurricane. Hubby was surprised with how fast everything was up and running soon after the government gave the all clear. I was just surprised how quickly the storm passed. I feel we were better prepared for Hurricane Gustav than this one, and have resolved to be better prepared next time around regardless how we think it may turn out. The sister islands took a real beating and have had extensive damage. I hope they are able to recover from this quickly.