Here is the first extensive report I have seen from the Cayman Islands:
"In the Cayman Islands, brutalized by the storm Sunday, most communications remained severed but sketchy accounts spoke of massive flooding, extensive structural damage and a harrowing experience.
A report received by the ham radio station at the National Hurricane Center shortly after noon today said the West Bay area of Grand Cayman, closest to the center of the storm, was leveled by Ivan.
''Ninety-nine percent of structures have been damaged or destroyed,'' said the report. ``I'm looking at total devastation. Automobiles cannot start due to water.''
The report also mentioned a large number of unconfirmed deaths and a second-hand report that an evacuation center had collapsed.
There were no confirmed casualty reports from the Caymans. Around the Caribbean, 68 deaths have been blamed on the hurricane so far.
''This is a national disaster,'' Desmond Seales, publisher of Cayman Net News, said today in an online posting. ``Damage is likely to run into the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.''
The posting quoted media reports as saying that Donovan Ebanks, deputy chairman of the Cayman Islands National Hurricane Committee, estimated that between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of the 15,000 homes on the island of Grand Cayman had ``suffered some damage.''
''As predicted, widespread flooding from the expected tidal surge was affecting a large part of the island . . .,'' the posting said. ``At the offices of Cayman Net News, a foot of floodwater had entered the building causing much damage.''
On Sunday, Ivan's winds crushed homes in the Caymans, its surf and rain chased people out of their homes and its comprehensive ferocity produced fear and panic.
''Oh my God, oh my God, the roof is coming off!'' a woman at the Adams Guest House in George Town, on the main island of Grand Cayman, told The Herald by telephone.
Then the line went dead.
Sustained winds of 120 mph blasted the island, numerous buildings lost their roofs, and power was out throughout Grand Cayman.
More than five feet of water flowed through many homes. According to ham radio operators, people were standing on their roofs to avoid floodwaters.
As it did in Jamaica, the hurricane's core -- and its 155-mph winds -- veered away from Grand Cayman at the last minute, but the three populated Cayman Islands absorbed a terrible beating.
Initial reports from the popular scuba-diving destination and banking center spoke of roofs flying off many houses, crashing into nearby buildings, tearing open the door of a public storm shelter.
The storm's towering waves and torrential rain produced another form of disaster -- flooding. Six-foot floods swamped George Town, the capital. Ambulances were under three feet of water.
''I'm at work and the water is up to my knees,'' Devon Chisolm, a firefighter in George Town, said Sunday morning. ``We can't help anyone -- there's too much wind and water.''
About 45,000 people live in the Caymans, a low-lying British territory of three populated islands. Some residents and tourists fled ahead of the storm."
Things can't get much worse than that.
