Originally Posted by
Jamerican71
On the day of our departure after spending a week in Grand Caymen, our flight home was cancelled. For the remaining guests, the hotel instructed us to leave our luggage in the bathtub and report to the lobby with a blanket and a pillow. They handed us a bag lunch and sent us in buses to a hurricane shelter and told us they would be back to pick us up. 4 days later of no change of clothes, rationed food, being amongst people who lost everything, caskets out of the ground, homes ruined, pure devastation, fights between Caymanians and Jamaicans (Jamaicans were being blamed for the looting) we were finally picked up.
Airport was ruined so airplanes were only taking off in daylight hours and only flying to Miami. After sending my mom and aunt on a flight to MIA, my sister and I went back to the hotel to get our stuff to then try to rush to airport but it was too dark for the planes to take off. It was chaotic, Jamaicans were told to report to the airport where Air Jamaica was to pick them up so there were loads of people just roaming the street. My sister and I went to the fire station and while the station was ruined they had a trickle of fresh water so we were able to do a quick splash. They also told us to get off the streets since there was a curfew.
Not knowing where to go, we ended up at the Marriott in Gtown which had also been destroyed. The mgr allowed us to sleep in the lobby until morning. Bonus was that they had a generator so they gave us cheese sandwiches and cold beer. We made it to the airport early in the morning and while we started off in the first 20, we were slowly pushed back since they were taking elderly and parents with children. It was now afternoon and we knew our hopes of getting home on this day were diminishing until I heard a man yell out that he had room on his plane to Tampa. We got on the last 2 seats on the private plane that was owned by the brother of the manager of Ritz Carloton- he was flying supplies down and on his return were taking people back. We finally got to Tampa and realized how dirty and funky we were but didn't stop us from pigging out at some restaurant before our flight back to DC.
I'll never forget Hurricane Ivan.
