Killer wall of water hits Caymans

THE full horror of Hurricane Ivan’s brutal spree through the British Cayman Islands began to emerge last night as residents reported a killer wall of water submerging the country and "devastation beyond imagination".

There were unconfirmed reports of a number of deaths and claims that corpses had been seen floating on the storm-tide. Locals and British ex-pats described roofs "peeling off like they were fastened on with Velcro" and lorries bobbing on the rising floodwater like bath-toys.

Some knotted bedsheets together to abseil from third-floor apartments as the sea gushed in, filling rooms from floor to ceiling and sending crabs crawling up the walls. Buildings collapsed, boulders were bowled down the streets, waves rolled along the airport runway and coconuts were fired through windows like bullets.

"The aftermath is catastrophic," said Mark Porter, 23, who was on holiday on Grand Cayman with a friend, Peter Oakes, 24, when the 150mph hurricane swept the Caribbean. Both are from Swansea.

"Pictures will never show the true horror and words cannot describe the storm, the howling and screaming. Roofs are off, floods are everywhere, trees are down. Many, if not all, buildings in the capital, George Town, suffered damage. The road is littered with large rocks, roofs, wood, signs, sand, palm leaves and coconuts. People are in awe of the damage."

Telephone lines were severed, mobile telephone masts toppled, power cut off and radio stations forced off air. The Royal Navy frigate, HMS Richmond, was offshore last night but was unable to make contact and said it could not lower boats or launch helicopters to reach the main island of Grand Cayman because of stormy conditions.

The Foreign Office had only sporadic contact with the British territory’s governor, Bruce Dinwiddy, who reported that Grand Cayman was "a mess" and had suffered severe damage. Whitehall issued an appeal to the Hurricane Watch Net, a network of ham radio operators scattered across the US and Caribbean, to help relay messages in.

"We have been talking to some hams on the islands who tell us that at one point they had to take their radios and move to the attic because the water was pouring in, that’s how desperate things had become," said Michael Pilgrim, head of the Hurricane Watch Net.

"We have contacted a radio ham on Grand Cayman, who has passed a message to a policeman, who is going to the governor to tell him that Richmond is there to provide help. They are trying to get a radio to the governor so he can speak to London."

Mariner’s Cove, a cluster of oceanfront apartments and townhouses on the south side of Grand Cayman, was reported to have been blasted from its foundations and the nearby Ocean Club development also destroyed. People were trying to reach George Town on foot or by bicycle to seek news and help.

Grand Cayman’s sister islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which lie to the north-east, were spared the worst of the damage. Half of those on the British-owned territory are Caymanian, many with British roots, and thousands more are British ex-pats.

Roger Bodden, the general manager of the Cayman Islands housing authority, took cover with his wife, Yolanda, and three daughters, Jessica, six, Belquis, 11, and India, 12, on the first floor of their house in Prospect Drive, Grand Cayman, as the water level rose seven feet above street level.

"The crabs and critters are up into everything and there are several birds taking cover in the garage," he said. "We are all very weary, hungry and wet. Trees are gone and debris is everywhere, and cars and trucks are gone or damaged beyond use."

A local journalist, Paulette Connolly, said that while there had been no official death toll, residents were reporting fatalities. "The winds ripped the apartments like match sticks, the whole island has taken a battering. Cars and trucks were floating away like toys," she said. "It is unimaginable. We are devastated."

Hurricane Ivan has already claimed more than 60 lives during its week-long rampage and was last night due to pass over the western tip of Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula with winds of 160mph. The Mexican resort city of Cancun opened shelters and closed beaches and the tourist island of Cozumel closed its airport and halted cruise ship arrivals.