Brac police learn valuable lessons in 2008

Royal Cayman Islands Police officers on Cayman Brac were tested twice during the 2008 storm season, first by Hurricane Gustav which struck the island a glancing blow in late August.

The Brac then received the knock-out punch of Hurricane Paloma in a rare late season storm this past November.

The main police station was destroyed, power was out to the entire island, and about half of the cops on the island had lost their homes.

"There were officers living in cars, and people sleeping…at people’s apartments and in the station for the first few days," Brac police Sergeant Matt Dawson said.

The "station" was actually the Aston Rutty community centre for the first few days after the storm. Police operations were then moved to the newly constructed University College of the Cayman Islands building where Brac police headquarters remains to date.

It was a challenging policing environment.

"Most of the buildings on the Island had been damaged or destroyed," Sgt. Dawson said. "Roofs were off, windows blown out; there was a real threat of looting."

The officers who were there had to hit the streets immediately and in some cases, stay on the job for up to 48 hours straight before back up arrived from Grand Cayman. But, for the most part, crime immediately after the storm was low.

"We were very fortunate policing here that we weren’t faced with the sort of situation where we had a lot of crime to deal with," Mr. Dawson said. "We had fewer reports in the aftermath of a hurricane than we would have had in a normal week."

The first major concern was getting generators to the Brac. Help from Grand Cayman arrived shortly and Sgt. Dawson said most of the emergency operations including police, fire, ambulance and hospitals had power within 48 to 72 hours after Paloma.

The police station lock up had also been destroyed in the storm, and some prisoners there had to be shipped to Grand Cayman.

In general, RCIPS officers have great power during the aftermath of a storm. They may, with the permission of Cayman’s governor, use emergency powers to enforce curfews and set up stop and search roadblocks. The law gives officers operating during that situation the ability to search a vehicle they stop for any reason.

Police also must provide security for key locations such as gas stations, airports, grocery stores, power and water facilities and the like to make sure those locations aren’t damaged by looters.

In the Brac, however, Sgt. Dawson said curfew measures were not taken.

"We had very few reports, if any, of looting," he said.

During the run up to a hurricane, police officers are assigned to work 12 hour shifts until the emergency operations centre on Grand Cayman shuts down. Vacation and other leave are cancelled and police who are off Island are usually asked to come back, barring exceptional circumstances. Additional officers are generally sent to the Brac to help out before a storm strikes.

In the case of Hurricane Paloma, Sgt. Dawson said police had to simply adapt to the situation.

However, he noted that the Brac was able to count on support that police in Grand Cayman might not, if a major storm was to strike the main island. Back up police officers, generators, food and other supplies were shipped within 48 hours if not sooner to the smaller island. He’s not sure if the Brac could have recovered as quickly without that help.

"The most challenging thing was to get enough generators here," he said. "There are still parts of the Island, even today, that don’t have main power."

All police vehicles and critical supplies had been stored in safe locations on the Brac, and Sgt. Dawson said there was minimal loss of policing equipment. That allowed officers to maintain 24-hour road patrols immediately after the all-clear was given from the storm.

Sgt. Dawson urged both police officers and residents in all three Cayman Islands to take care to prepare carefully ahead of the 2009 storm season.

"We’d gone into full-alert mode for Hurricane Gustav, but received very little damage," he said. "From a personal point of view, I was probably a little lax in my preparations for Paloma.’

"It’s something everyone should do, not just the police. Plan for the worst, and hope for the best."