News

The Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA)  says it is taking steps to ensure there will be no future flooding at Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA).Around 2pm Tuesday, during a period of heavy rainfall   overwhelmed the airport's 220-thousand gallon water cistern.

Airport officials say the cistern was near capacity because of prior heavy rainfall and the latest round of rain caused an overflow of water into a deep well.  It quickly reached capacity, eventually exceeding the capacity of the cistern and ultimately causing the flooding in the terminal.

A statement from the Airports Authority says the flooding was not a result of any roof leaks or water ingress under doors and says at no time was there more than one inch of water in the terminal.  The main affected areas were a portion of the departure hall and utility rooms. Crews were mobilized to pump the water out of the cistern and address clean up the water.

The airport has mobilized an airport action team to identify the flooding causes and solutions and has vowed to put mitigation measures in place to ensure the flooding does not happen again.  The cistern by the way is used to provide water for irrigation and emergencies.