This article is supposed to be about 500 words long. But the question posed can be answered in fewer than 10. What if Cayman had no hurricane committee? A lot of people would be very nervous.

Yes, there is a core population that survived Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. That event serves as a benchmark after the Storm of ‘32 in terms of reminding people just how powerful forces of nature can be, what residents did right in preparing and what they needed to do once the winds and rains subsided.

Although some stark memories will remain with us the rest of our lives, there are details that inevitably will have faded over the past seven years. So here’s a quick quiz:

How many gallons of water should you have on hand when the next hurricane approaches?

What is the minimum thickness recommended for plywood used to board up windows?

Which hurricane shelter is nearest to your home?

That’s the kind of information our national hurricane committee reminds us of annually through Hazard Management Cayman Islands.

Arguably we could get along without a hurricane committee in terms of preparedness, since there are dozens of resources, especially on the Internet, to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do. But those suggestions may be geared for conditions in the US and will therefore not address our specific situation.

Also arguably, if we didn’t have a hurricane committee, it wouldn’t really matter because there are at least popular three hurricane-tracking web sites to tell us the projected path. The problem is that some sites show five or six projections -- which is likely to be most accurate? Cayman’s weather forecasters are far more likely to know how to interpret data in terms of local conditions.

Their conclusions help determine when our national hurricane plan kicks into action. If we had no national hurricane committee, who would make the necessary decisions? Which structures can be designated shelters? When should they open? Who will man them? What rules should be in place for people who take refuge there? Who will tell people when they need to be off the streets and in a place of safety? Who will determine the appropriate distribution of emergency rations? How will police, firefighters, medical personnel co-ordinate their response to emergency situations? Who will have the resources to assess damage, compile an accurate report and tell the rest of the world the true state of the infrastructure that supports our tourism and financial industries?
Before, during and after a storm decisions have to be made in the context of their potential wider impact -- the easiest example being if/when to evacuate tourists and how that process can affect residents who wish to leave the Islands.

A central body with legal authority just makes sense.

When the 2010 Census is finally published, it will be interesting to see what portion of the population has arrived post-Ivan. People who have come here from other climates may never have gone through a hurricane. Their friends and co-workers can help ease anxieties by relating personal experiences. And newcomers can be reassured that a strong national hurricane committee will help see all of us through.