Cayman Government Provides Post-Hurricane Beryl Update & Pledges Assistance To Caribbean Neighbours

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Her Excellency The Governor, Premier Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, Minister of Health Sabrina Turner, Minister of Tourism Kenneth Bryan, and Minister of Financial Services Andre Ebanks, attended a press conference this afternoon, July 5, 2024, to give an update on the work their ministries were doing post-Hurricane Beryl. The Government also pledged its support for other countries in the Caribbean following Hurricane Beryl’s passage.

Status update from the Governor

Speaking first, Her Excellency The Governor noted that she was “impressed with how Cayman together has handled the whole event”, given that this was her first experience facing a hurricane.

She added:

And very importantly, I’ve been really impressed with all of you, you know, everybody out there, all of our community that has come together to share information, figure out what we’re doing and stick together and try and come to get together to tackle things as a group.

I was very impressed to see, though, even within a few hours of the all clear, just how much work was going on to tidy things up, which is so crucial for us getting back to work.

Her Excellency the Governor also thanked the Cabinet for the support and great collaboration throughout the hurricane.

Her Excellency The Governor Mrs Jane Owen

Lastly, Her Excellency The Governor noted that she had an opportunity to speak with the new United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary, David Lammy, a member of the new Labour Party Government.

She expressed that Mr Lammy “was very, very supportive and very concerned and very pleased that we hadn’t had too bad a hit.”

Following that conversation, Her Excellency was well-positioned to reconfirm that the United Kingdom continues to stand with the Cayman Islands.

Update from the Premier

The Premier also expressed her “profound sense of gratitude and relief,” adding that “our prayers have been answered” and that there were “no reports of injuries to residents or visitors” and no deaths directly related to Hurricane Beryl.

Concerning infrastructure, she said:

All airports I’m happy to report, including the Owen Roberts airport in Grand Cayman, as well as the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport are open.

The cleanup operations are also currently underway across the country to ensure the well being of our residents and visitors.

And I give apologies for my minister responsible for infrastructure, Honourable Jay Ebanks, who is attending [to] the families who have lost loved ones this morning.

Minister of Infrastructure Jay Ebanks

Addressing the food security aspect of Mr Ebanks’ ministry, the Premier said that she suspected that some of our Cayman farmers may have suffered damage during Hurricane Beryl’s passage. She expressed that she and Minister Ebanks would direct their minds to farmers’ concerns.

She added, “Food security is everybody’s business, and we want to ensure that we have stabilized and give all the assistance that Honorable Minister Jay may need in that regard.”

(image source: CIGTV)

In addition to collaborating with fellow ministers in Cayman, the Premier noted that the Cayman Islands Government “will also be assisting the Eastern Caribbean.”

She added:

I just wanted to get it out there that we are thinking of our brothers and sisters.

Once we have that special Cabinet, we will come back to you, let you know the outcome of that.

While we are almost unscathed, it is important that, like I said, we recognize our Caribbean neighbours.

 She continued:

When we were in trouble, they helped us.

But even if they didn’t have, I think it’s the right and responsible thing to do because it’s everybody’s business to ensure… that we keep our neighbours as united as possible.

Lastly, the Premier noted that another weather system, AL96, was approaching the Caribbean.

Regarding this, she noted that “AL 96 has weakened [as] a tropical wave causing disorganized showers and potentially gusty winds in the Greater Antilles.”

She added:

The marine and weather alerts… small craft caution is still in effect for upcoming adverse weather conditions on Sunday and Monday.

The latest information we have is that we should be experiencing some rain on Sunday and Monday.

If that changes, we’ll come back to you with real information from our Met office.

Update from Minister of Financial Services and Social Development

Turning to the financial services infrastructure,  the Minister of Financial Services confirmed that “business… continued as usual.”

He added:

… firms were able to complete work remotely and did not miss a beat during the storm.

They have well established business continuity plans that were again tested and remain solid.

Andre Ebanks, Minister of Financial Services & Social Development

Regarding the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, he said:

The licensees regulated by CIMA are required to provide the authority with their business continuity plans.

Monetary authority confirms that there have been no issues been reported by licensees from the hurricane.

The monetary authority’s operations continue as usual today.

He continued:

They have a robust business crisis and continuity management plan[s].

Real-time data backups and synchronizations were fully operational if necessary, but they were not stressed during this time.

[Regarding] General Registry, Department of Commerce and Investment, Department of International Tax Cooperation and the Intellectual Property Office… [there are] no issues to report.

All public counters are open today. In fact, the DCI said that there were online applications submitted as of startup business this morning.

The Minister also provided an update on the Needs Assessment Unit for which he has responsibility.

He shared:

The disbursement of the additional $400 to offset storm costs for those who are long term financial assistance recipients and those seafarers and vets were all processed.

There are 172 checks that were processed. They were unable to be distributed prior to Beryl but should be made arrangements to be collected from NAU today.

Over 300 clients received top up on their food cards earlier than expected.

The West Bay district usually scheduled Needs Assessment visit for today will need to be rescheduled.

[Regarding the] Children and Family Department of Children and Family Services, all residential facilities have been checked on and all residents and staff are faring well.

Update from Minister of Tourism

Turning to tourism and the safety of our visitors, the Minister of Tourism said he “would like to recognize our first responders, emergency services workers, and those who work in the national operations centre and our joint communications services because, without them, we wouldn’t have been so prepared, so responsive.”

He added:

By way of general tourism update, I’m very pleased to report that our infrastructure remains intact and that our attractions and accommodation partners weathered the storm without any significant damage.

My team at the Cayman Islands Department of tourism is contacting all the industry partners to arrange walkthroughs and conduct assessments. And all we’ve heard so far is everything is positive.

He continued:

On behalf of the Ministry of Tourism, I extend my heartfelt thank you to all of our tourism partners, particularly those at the Cayman Islands Tourism association.

Working with them to let our stakeholders know what the Government is doing was key to making sure that this process was at ease for our visitors on the island.

We’re very grateful also to our airline partners and more particularly our national flag carrier for the amazing work that they did throughout this process.

Minister of Tourism, Kenneth Bryan

Staying on the topic of the national flag carrier Cayman Airways, the Minister of Tourism noted that Cayman Airways “significantly increased outbound flights over the past few days to support the safe evacuation of thousands of visitors.”

He added:

One of the benefits of having a national airline is during times like this, when there’s hurricanes or any other kind of emergency, they were able to quickly amend their schedules to aid the preparedness and evacuation efforts.

They did over 24 evacuation flights.

I can confirm for Cayman Airways that there was no issues to our flights or aircrafts while the storms were here and none of the facilities had any major effects here on Grand Cayman or on the sister islands. We have had no reports of any staff being affected in any negative way.

He concluded:

As the all clear was given, preliminary assessment of the airports, terminals, buildings and runways were conducted with no major issues identified. As you know, the airport was open at 3:00 yesterday.

No significant concerns either at the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport which was also opened at 3:00 p.m. yesterday.

The Port Authority in Cayman Brac also has no issues and we’re open to regular hours first thing this morning.

The Port Authority in Grand Cayman is in good shape with minor wind damage.

Update from the Minister of Health

Also highlighting the work done by her ministry, the Minister of Health noted that “all HSA services have been resumed both in Grand Cayman and the sister islands.”

She added: “The HSA will contact patients whose appointments and elective surgeries were cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday to reschedule.”

The Minister of Health clarified that the Health Services Authority and centres “are not general hurricane shelters.”

“The public persons should not go to accident and emergency department in order to shelter,” she stressed.

Concerning emergency services, she thanked the Cayman Islands Regiment, the Cayman Islands Cadet Corps, and the Cayman Islands Fire Service for their work during Hurricane Beryl’s passage.