Grenada - Ivan - Article

[Sanibel]

Meg Lukens Noonan - 'Outside Magazine'


Though hurricanes are a fact of life in the Caribbean, no one was prepared for the massive destruction and loss of life the islands experienced in 2004. There were six major hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin (defined as category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength, with winds topping 111 miles an hour). This was twice the annual average, and four of them slammed the Caribbean. The cost to the region was more than $6 billion, according to the UN Econimic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

In August, Hurricane Charley hit Cuba and Jamaica, killing five people. Three and a half weeks later, Hurricane Ivan struck Grenada. Ivan then intensified to a category 5 storm (winds over 155mph) and pounded Grand Cayman, washing over the island and causing severe damage to homes and hotels, many of which couldn't reopen until this fall. Ivan generated the largest ocean waves ever recorded - upwards of 90 feet - before knocking out the monitoring buoys; post-storm computer models put the waves at up to 130 feet. Ivan also struck parts of Jamaica, killing 17 people, racking up nearly $600 million in damage, wiping out many of Negril's waterfront bars, and forcing hotels to close for several months of repair work. Days later, Hurricane Jeanne and the massive flooding that followed killed 2,700 people in Haiti and 23 in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Jeanne also brought floods and wind damage to Grand Bahama and Abaco, which had been hit hard by Hurricane Frances a few weeks earlier.

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As the 2005 season began, NOAA added seven weather-data-buoy stations in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic to fill some gaps in its data-monitoring map. It also launched a Web page called Storm Tracker, which provides advisories and tracking maps. Still, international agencies continue to call for better early-notification systems. "I've warned the world that it is not going to get better; it is going to become worse," said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland last June, at a workshop on disaster preparedness. "We owe it to the people to prepare them."

[Sanibel]

Meg Lukens Noonan - 'Outside Magazine'

ST GEORGE'S, GRENADA


Hurricane Ivan gave an unfathomable shock to a nation whose official motto is "God is a Grenadian." It had been just shy of a half century since the last serious hurricane struck Grenada, and even as Ivan was bearing down, few residents sensed real danger. "We were so naive," says Lawrence Lambert, managing director of the Flamboyant Hotel, which sits on a hill above the southern end of Grande Anse, Grenada's celebrated two-mile stretch of white sand beach. "I thought maybe some doors might blow in."

In fact, the Flamboyant, like so many other buildings, was pounded, losing its main restaurant and all of its roofs. Ivan was so good at dismantling roofs, locals started referring to the storm as Hurricane Roofus. Very few buildings were erected with hurricane survival in mind; analysts now say that $4 metal hurricane straps, which help keep a roof fastened to the top of an exterior wall, would have greatly reduced the islandwide structural damage.

Now- despite all this destruction and despair - Grenada is bouncing back, at a pace no one could have imagined in those initial grim post-hurricane days. After the first dazed month, insurance claims began getting settled; construction materials made their way to the island; teams of workers put in countless hours of hard, hot labor; red tape was cut through ; and the government mandate to "build back better" began to seem possible. By the end of this year (2005), 94 percent of the island's nearly 1600 hotel rooms will be available to guests. Among them, the rebuilt Spice Island Beach Resort, on Grande Anse, will reopen as a five-star hotel. A few hotels never closed: the candy-colored cottages of Bel Air Plantation, which were built to Florida hurricane standards by American owners in 2003, and the down-but-not-out True Blue Bay Resort, which provided lodging and meals to an endless procession of insurance adjusters and embassy personnel in the months following the storm. The last major hotel to reopen, LaSource, will welcome guests beginning sometime in 2006.

Of course, the island still bears Ivan's scars. Some are obvious, like the many houses - especially the more rural ones - sheltered by blue tarps. Some are less obvious, like the thatched umbrellas at the understatedly chic Laluna resort, put up on the beach to replace shade trees lost to the storm. Tourism is rebounding: In August, the island was expecting around 15,000 visitors, a return to almost 90 percent of last year's (2004) pre-Ivan numbers. Meanwhile, the future of the Nutmeg industry - which accounted for about half of Grenada's agricultural-export earnings and supplied a third of all nutmeg world-wide - remains uncertain, as almost all of the island's nutmeg trees were destroyed.

Challenges notwithstanding, visitors to Grenada this winter will find a heartfelt welcome from a nation that knows how crucial the return of tourists is to its economy - and its battered psyche. They'll also find beaches that are clean and inviting. The reefs and wrecks off Point Salines are still great dive spots. The Morne Fendue Plantation House, high in the hills of St Patrick's Parish, is still serving its astonishing soursop ice cream. And the nutmeg-dusted rum punches at True Blue Bay Resort's rebuilt waterfront bar are as sweet - and as potent - as ever.

[Extremeweatherguy]

I was in Grenada shortly after Ivan. It was a wreck down there, and the worst thing was the locals that tried to rob us at the beach and all the people trying to sell us things. It was not a good experience. I am sure they were doing it because they needed money, but trying to rob people and constantly trying to sell them beads, and coconuts is just a little ridiculous (By constantly, I mean every 10 seconds). I will not be visiting Grenada again for awhile, but do hope that they can continue to recover from the wrath of Ivan and all other storms that have affected them.