Hurricane season is upon us, and the facilities staff at Camana Bay has been preparing to ensure its hurricane parking programme is once again running smoothly.
The programme allows for participants to drop off and safely park their vehicles in the Camana Bay parking garages in the event of an impending storm. They will then be ready for pickup within 48 hours of the all-clear being given following the storm's passing.
"Hurricane Ivan was a long time ago, but many remember the impact it had on our small island community," Camana Bay Senior Property Manager Jeff Wight said. "We started the hurricane parking programme because we have two multi-storey parking garages and hoped to help avoid another Ivan-scale loss of vehicles due to storm surge."
Starting this year, Camana Bay has enlisted a third-party vendor to support with processing the significant volume of cars the parking facilities take in if a full activation of the programme is triggered. Last year was the first time the programme engaged in a full activation in more than 10 years.
"It was a reminder of the monumental task to safely park and return that many cars in only a few days," Wight said.
Registration for the programme for Camana Bay tenants and residents is now closed. Camana Bay will issue tags to subscribers and maintain communications with them throughout the hurricane season.
"There is quite a bit of work behind the scenes to ensure we’ve reviewed our lessons learned from previous years and work through the various scenarios to ensure our processes are as efficient as possible," Wight said.
"Obviously we hope for a quiet hurricane season, but for any storm threats, we’ll be in touch with updates and info to all subscribers."
Last year's full activation led to a review of the programme and ways to make it more efficient. Hurricane Ian presented a unique challenge because it triggered the full activation but then largely left Cayman unscathed as it brushed past around 85 miles offshore. That meant most residents who had parked their cars through the programme had to be at work the next day, leaving facilities staff scrambling. This year, Camana Bay hopes to avoid that issue but also is asking for patience from subscribers should a similar situation arise.
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