Although, the subject of hurricanes is somewhat 'off-topic' for a Caribbean racing web site, the following plea is being published because any of us in the Caribbean could be in the same boat next week, the week after, or next year.

The Caymans really have received little media attention and appear to be in dire straits:

"I must repeat my plea to all of you to assist in any way you can in bringing the plight of The Cayman Islands into focus. The world's newspapers and TV stations have reported ad infinitum on Hurricane Ivan's impact on Jamaica, Cuba and Florida. Nobody seems to care a damn about this tiny nation of 40,000 that got hit worst of all. There has been almost zero reporting of the appalling catastrophe that Cayman now is.

"I took a decision on Thursday 9th, as did many Cayman employers, to try and charter an aircraft to evacuate employees who wanted to flee. Twenty people left. My wife and I escaped to New York on one of the last available commercial flights on Friday afternoon. We are now in The Bahamas with the clothes on our back and an overnight bag. We have no idea if we have a habitable home to return to.

"Hurricane Ivan struck Cayman on Sunday evening and destroyed everything in its path.

"I have organised three relief flights using private air charter from Nassau to date. We have sent down automobile fuel, water, bicycles (nearly all cars were destroyed), medical supplies, oxyacetylene cutters, chain saws, food, stoves, propane gas and everything imaginable. I went down on one of the aircraft we chartered on Thursday 16th to take a look for myself and Cayman is like a war zone with aspiring evacuees hanging around he airport in their hundreds. Three staff, whose cars survived, were at the airport and had been awaiting our arrival for hours (we had big problems getting clearance to fly over Cuba). They all looked absolutely terrible.

"The airport terminal building is no more. Immigration and customs comprised a set ot trestle tables in the open air but people were ignoring them. The airport perimeter fence was just a mangle of wire and concrete and there were huge gaps big enough to drive a truck through. The two pilots and I unloaded the supplies from both aircraft onto a trailer I managed to procure (looked like the outboard of a truck that had been destroyed) and wheeled it towards a big hole in the fence where our staff were waiting along with many other destitute people. We were immediately surrounded and a few soft drink cans and water bottles went missing. Taken by people who obviously had not had anything to drink for a long time.

"I spent about half an hour with our Head of Banking Operations and gave him $10,000 in cash to hand out to people in need (cash is king, no credit cards and a rampant black market, banks closed, accounts frozen etc). He is a naturalised Caymanian of Cuban extraction and his house and possessions got off likely. Conversely, one of our secretaries and her husband lost their house, boat dock, boat and two cars with nothing salvageable and only the foundations of their house to denote where they used to live. I was told there was still no electricity, telephone or water. Sanitation is a nightmare and every little nick or cut people sustain turns septic. Flood waters are contaminated with sewage. There is a 6.00pm to 6.00am curfew in place and the police are patrolling with automatic weapons but looting is out of control and gunfire can be heard at night.

"Telephone lines have been partially restored but getting through is a lottery. I spoke to one of my staff this morning and learned that the government is refusing to comment on the number of deaths (for fear of prejudice to the world's fifth largest banking centre which is 50% of the Cayman economy?) but has established two water supply stations and one gasoline sale point. It takes 3-4 hours to queue up for either. Our office building, along with many others has been condemned and the government has posted a notice on the main door. There is still no electricity anywhere.

"I am trying to restore Ansbacher Bank & Trust Company (Cayman) Limited from here. I went to see the Governor of The Central Bank of The Bahamas on Thursday before I flew to Cayman and he has assured me that all possible assistance will be rendered to banks that want to operate here pro tem.

"Commercial flights are starting to operate again on a limited basis but the priority is to lift out casualties first, stranded tourists after that and then all expatriate workers in order to ease the food, water and medical burden on Caymanians. THe US immigration authority is reported to be turning away relief flights into Miami, Lauderdale, Houston etc., other than for US citizens because of their paranoia about terrorism (just to make things worse in Cayman and to demonstrate who they are!).

"There are thousands of homeless roaming around, knocking on doors to seek shelter and being turned away. Many have broken into what remains of the hotels that were not blown away.

"Can I ask all of you therefore to please, please, please bring the plight of the Cayman Islands to the attention of the worlds' media, your MPs, anybody with influence. Especially in UK as Cayman is still a British Dependent Territory. Tony Blair and his cronies are apparently only interested in the fox hunting issue at present."

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