BRITAIN was under increasing pressure to send more help to the Cayman Islands yesterday as residents accused the authorities of underplaying the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Ivan.
Thousands of people packed into the tiny Owen Roberts international airport on Grand Cayman yesterday as foreign governments and private businesses organised a makeshift airlift to get nonessential workers out, to relieve pressure on dwindling food and water supplies.
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Many question the absence so far of British air assistance to rescue survivors and bring in much-needed supplies. The chief executive of Cable and Wireless, the island’s major telephone company, called for US military assistance to maintain law and order and protect the island’s only remaining telecommunications centre.
Ivan struck at the weekend, damaging 90 per cent of buildings. The airport is in chaos, with airlines and immigration officials working from tents on the apron because of damage to the terminal.
Women, children and the elderly are being given priority for evacuation, disappointing thousands of others who came to the airport carrying bags and even their pets.
There are reports of looting. Annette McAdam, 42, of Guernsey, who lives on Grand Cayman, said looters had machetes, guns and knives: “There was jewellery in the street where they dropped stuff on the way. It’s scary, you don’t feel safe and you worry how far they will go.”
Linford Pearson, Speaker of the House of Parliament, said Grand Cayman was experiencing “very, very trying times”.
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“We have never seen anything like this in our lifetime,” he said.
There is concern that Whitehall and the Cayman Islands Government have failed to reveal the true scale of the devastation in an attempt to limit damage to tourism and banking.
Sheena Carten, from Derry, Northern Ireland, a broadcaster with Radio Cayman, complained yesterday that she had been told to censor reports of damage and not mention people who had reported relatives or family members missing.
“It’s hard not to assume the worst when you hear reports of people riding out the storm on boats at sea and still not being heard of. It’s very difficult being a reporter on air trying to convey that everything is OK when I flew over the island on a helicopter and it’s just completely urecognisable.
“It’s hard to say it’s OK when you go out into the community and find them just devastated.
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“The island is a mess. What the Government is scared of is losing their financial standing. I understand the fear among our businesses and tourism sectors, but there are thousands of people who need help and we have to admit that.”
There was also concern when it was revealed that the Royal Navy, which has two ships offshore, was expected to pull out at 4pm local time yesterday. Of HMS Richmond’s 170 personnel, 76 have been ashore. They have helped to dole out tinned food and to get generators working, because much of the island has been left without power and, more critically, running water.
Petty Officer Jim Saunders, from Burnley, said: “We couldn’t get ashore for two days because of weather conditions. We wanted to be in there helping. In my opinion help is getting to where it’s needed and everybody is making the best of things. At least the airport is open so more can be got in.”
Seamus Brodie, who is originally from Chelsea lost his house on Grand Cayman but could not get a flight out.
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Samana: Tropical Storm Jeanne strengthened to a hurricane and made a direct hit on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic with heavy winds and drenching rains, leaving behind a blacked-out Puerto Rico still counting damage from a storm that turned roads into raging rivers and killed two people. More than 2,300 people fled homes in the storm’s projected path and took refuge in shelters set up in schools and churches, officials said. (AP)